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AMHERST, N.Y. – In a recently announced update by Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, ˿����Ƶ College has been elevated to the top tier classification – doctoral – making it one of only two private colleges in the Buffalo Niagara region to earn this prestigious distinction.

˿����Ƶ has been advanced from the master’s colleges and universities/larger programs category to the doctoral/professional universities classification. With this major change, ˿����Ƶ and the University at Buffalo are the only two institutions in Western New York included in the doctoral category.

“˿����Ƶ’s advancement to the top tier classification as a doctoral university is a historic milestone in our emerging status as a college of national distinction,” said ˿����Ƶ President Gary Olson. “A higher level Carnegie status brings with it an institutional prestige that has many advantages in recruiting high-quality students and faculty, enhances the attractiveness of an institution’s graduates to prospective employers, and contributes to an institution’s standing in the region.”

˿����Ƶ joins other elite institutions across the U.S. that hold the doctoral/professional universities classification, including Hofstra University, Pepperdine University, Simmons College, and Towson University. The college is one of 164 institutions in the country to achieve the doctoral/professional universities distinction.

“Earning Carnegie’s prominent doctoral classification is a great point of pride at ˿����Ƶ, and we are honored to be among such an esteemed group of colleges and university in this category,” said Dr. Michael Brogan, senior vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college. “This designation is a strong affirmation of ˿����Ƶ’s rich history of academic excellence and reflects on our exceptional, dedicated faculty who provide outstanding learning opportunities to our students.”

The Carnegie Classification system evaluates all higher education institutions based on undergraduate and graduate instructional programs, enrollment profile, undergraduate profile, size and setting, and basic classification.

According to Carnegie, “the doctoral universities category has been reshaped to better accommodate doctor’s degree – professional practice.”

Carnegie Classification has been the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education for more than four decades. The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education developed a classification of colleges and universities to support its program of research and policy analysis. This framework has been widely used in the study of higher education to represent and control for institutional differences, and also in the design of research studies to ensure adequate representation of sampled institutions, students, or faculty.