ASU 1 of 21 R1 universities recognized in new Carnegie classification for student access and earnings
Classification redesign puts focus on student success

By Penny Walker, ASU News
April 28, 2025

It is a headline that could have been missed in the blur of daily news about American higher education: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education announced redesigned classifications for America’s colleges and universities, the latest update to a higher education framework used since 1970.

It's a significant new national effort to focus on student success.

A key to the new Carnegie classification approach? Highlighting universities that provide broad access to students and strong paths to competitive wages for their graduates. ASU is one of only 21 Research 1 universities that are recognized in the new category.

ASU President Michael Crow applauded the new Carnegie approach.

“Arizona State University is already answering the call for a different kind of American university,” Crow said. “We are an institution committed to broad access and opportunities for all qualified students of every possible background. We are producing research that matters and record numbers of graduates that employers clamor to hire. Our design makes us elite in every possible way — except in access.”

In the new classifications — technically referred to as the “Student Access and Earnings Classification” —- ASU is among those categorized as Opportunity Colleges and Universities. In the new listing:

ASU is classified as “high access” as it enrolls more Pell and underrepresented minority students than expected given the geography of the student body.

ASU is also classified as “high earnings” as the median student who starts at ASU will earn considerably more than a group of people of comparable location, age and other demographic characteristics.

“The combination of high access and high earnings is our story,” Crow said. “If you are qualified to learn at ASU, you will have the opportunity to do so, and when you graduate from ASU, your degree will matter.”

There are 479 Opportunity Colleges and Universities in the new Carnegie ranking with both high access and high earnings. ASU is the only one in Arizona. Only 21 of the 479 are also R1 universities, including the University of Houston, the University of Central Florida, the University of Louisville, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Merced.

ASU’s total research expenditures top $900 million, according to the latest HERD survey for fiscal year 2023. ASU’s 34% expenditures growth rate in the past two fiscal years was among the largest of the top 50 research universities in the country, but that does not come at the expense of student access.

“This is important recognition that students from every socioeconomic background can come to ASU, a full-fledged R1 university that is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, and leave here with the highest possible outcome,” Crow said.

“The Student Access and Earnings Classification highlights the depth and breadth of schools where student success is front and center,” American Council on Education President Ted Mitchell said in announcing the new classifications.

Learn more about the full Carnegie report here.

A new kind of university is already here

Traditional higher education in America feels like it could be so much more. More accessible. More affordable. Delivering more of an impact with less student debt.

Such is the increasingly loud chorus of criticism — whether in the halls of Congress or around kitchen tables.

And you know what? We agree.

Learn more about the need to change traditional higher education here: changehighered.com.

This story originally appeared on ASU News.