College's Carnegie Classification Changes to Reflect Expanded Baccalaureate Offerings

Pennsylvania College of Technology will be classified in the "Baccalaureate/Associate's Colleges" category of the 2000 edition of The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the leading typology of American colleges and universities.

The Carnegie Classification, which encompasses more than 3,800 accredited colleges and universities in the United States and outlying areas, was last published in 1994, when Penn College was classified in the "Associate's Colleges" category.

The "Baccalaureate/Associate's Colleges" classification that the College has been assigned for the latest edition is reserved for institutions that are undergraduate colleges with significant baccalaureate programs, though the majority of their conferrals are associate's degrees and certificates.

Penn College began offering bachelor-degree programs in 1992. Approximately 30 percent of the students attending the College today are pursuing four-year degrees.

"We are pleased that the new Carnegie Classification reflects the 30 bachelor-degree programs offered here in a variety of career fields," said Penn College President Dr. Davie Jane Gilmour. "The four-year programs demonstrate our ability to respond to changing workforce needs. Although our baccalaureate programs have expanded, we remain committed to our mission of providing accessible educational opportunities for a wide spectrum of individual needs, including associate-degree and certificate offerings."

In the Carnegie Classification, institutions are classified using degree-conferral data from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics. Each institution is classified using three-year averages and the most recent year's degree data. For Penn College, both approaches yielded the same result.

The Carnegie Classification was developed in the early 1970s to aid research on higher education. It is updated periodically to group together institutions that offer similar programs.

More information about the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education can be found on the Web.

Preliminary versions of the Carnegie Classification have been published on the Web site and in "The Chronicle of Higher Education." The final version of the 2000 edition will be available online and in print.