Colgate University has long been a leading liberal arts university. Now, thanks to a new classification from the Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education (ACE), it is also a leading research university.
Research universities are commonly classified by Carnegie’s R1 and R2 designations, labels often held by large state universities that award dozens of doctorates every year. This standard has become a part of the American lexicon since the foundation launched its survey in 1973. The foundation and its partners at ACE retooled survey designations for 2025. Active universities, like Colgate, that spend at least $2.5 million on research are now designated as Research Colleges and Universities.
For its part, Colgate logged more than $4 million in research spending during Fiscal Year 2022–23 — far exceeding minimum requirements — to achieve the new designation. Internal expenditures on research more than doubled during the survey period, thanks in part to the early success of Colgate’s Campaign for the Third Century.
“This new designation from the Carnegie Foundation and ACE demonstrates Colgate’s effective, consistent pursuit of Third-Century Plan priorities,” says President Brian W. Casey. “These include academic program support, increased startup funds for new faculty researchers, and additional named faculty chairs that provide further research support. Colgate has also nurtured a longtime tradition: the professor-student research partnership.”
Partnerships between Colgate faculty members and undergraduate researchers have yielded remarkable results through the decades, most recently contributing to a groundbreaking study that reevaluates the role of Antarctica in global climate change projections.
“We welcome this new designation because it recognizes the creativity and initiative of both our faculty members and our students. We are committed to a teacher-scholar model, where faculty engage deeply with their fields and bring that engagement back into their classrooms, labs, and studios,” says Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lesleigh Cushing. “As a faculty, we seek to create new knowledge, and we often involve our students as partners in that creation. That we include undergraduates in what is often groundbreaking research, that they have so many opportunities to learn by doing, and by doing at a very high level, is a real mark of distinction for Colgate.”
As a research university, Colgate takes its place among a small group of institutions committed to hands-on learning and to investing in teacher-scholars. “Rigorous organizations like the Carnegie Classifications provide the public with a reliable way to compare myriad institutions of higher education,” says Neil Albert, associate provost for institutional analysis and university registrar. “They allow potential members of this community to observe our ambitions and see that Colgate shares their aspirations.”