A new classification of U.S. colleges and universities recognizes Oregon State University for its “very high research activity.”

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has been producing its classification of America’s more than 3,000 college and universities since 1970. While the classification system itself has undergone significant changes over the years, it is widely considered the “gold standard” and is used in several well-known school rankings nationwide.

Research universities that grant doctoral degrees, such as OSU, are classified in three ways: institutions with “very high” research activity (RU/VH), those with high activity (RU/H) and those simply recognized as doctoral/research universities (DRU).

OSU is the only Oregon institution to receive the top designation. OSU conducted nearly $209 million in research projects in 2004-05 — more than 60 percent of the total research funding garnered by the entire Oregon University System and all its campuses.

Carnegie’s new ratings take into account multiple factors in evaluating each institution’s research activity. Those factors include research funding from federal and other sources but are not limited to funding, also taking into account aggregate and per-capita measures of research activity.

The Carnegie Web site shows that 95 institutions received the RU/VH designation, including OSU. Only 63 of those universities, like OSU, are public institutions.

Other Oregon institutions appearing in the Carnegie ratings include the University of Oregon (RU/H), Portland State University (DRU) and Oregon Health & Science University, which as a medical campus falls within Carnegie’s “special focus institution” category.

For more information, see www.carnegieclassification-preview.org/index.aspx.