In April 2025, ACE and the Carnegie Foundation published the 2025 Institutional Classification and a new Student Access and Earnings Classification — significant revisions to a system that plays a key role in shaping higher education.

Join Mushtaq Gunja, executive director of the Carnegie Classification systems and senior vice president at ACE, and Sara Gast, deputy director of the Classifications for an overview of the key goals behind this revision and the major changes aimed at improving its use by policymakers, funders, and researchers. This revised classification system as a whole offers new perspectives on the higher education sector and sparks discussions on how various types of colleges and universities serve students and operate in today’s context.

Please visit the Carnegie Classifications website to explore the classifications and learn more about the methodology. A variety of methodology documents and data can be downloaded from the resources page.