Missouri State University is among 216 institutions nationwide that will join a new Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education category.  

Missouri State received the designation “Research Colleges and Universities.” This designation identifies institutions that spend more than $2.5 million on research each year but do not meet specific doctorate-granting benchmarks for classification as Research 1 or Research 2 institutions.  

Last year, Missouri State topped its research funding record for the second straight year, receiving $63.2 million in external funding for fiscal year 2024. 

“We’re honored to be recognized for our research efforts,” said Dr. Tamera Jahnke, interim provost. “Since July 1, our faculty, with support from staff in the offices of research administration and financial services, have submitted over 200 external funding proposals.   

“Funding for faculty research creates opportunities for students, facilitates travel to conferences, provides for new instrumentation and so much more. This recognition is a tribute to Missouri State’s faculty.” 

The Carnegie Classification is a framework for classifying colleges and universities in the United States created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and managed by the American Council on Education.  

Designation changes 

In 2022, the Carnegie Foundation reimagined the classifications to ensure they better reflect the public purpose, mission, focus and impact of today’s higher education institutions. Despite the evolution of many institutions of higher education and the ways in which Americans pursue postsecondary credentials, the classification system had not changed considerably since its first release in 1973.  

As a part of this work, the Carnegie Foundation recognized the need to establish a new methodology. The recently released 2025 classification system reflects those changes.   

This iteration will revise the Basic Classification, which placed U.S. colleges and universities into groups based on the highest degree awarded. It creates new, multidimensional groupings of institutions that go beyond a single label and make significant changes to how research is recognized.