A new Carnegie seal has been established for recognizing institutional research levels, offering an updated version for the UCCS community to use when representing the campus’s R2 designation.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education recently released the updated 2025 Carnegie Classifications, which included redesigned Research Activity Designations.
“The reaffirmation of our R2 designation reflects the strength and momentum of research and creative activity across our campus, made possible by the meaningful contributions of our faculty, staff, and students,” said Hillary Fouts, Ph.D., Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. “Research is central to our mission, and this recognition underscores our commitment to advancing knowledge that serves our region and beyond. The new R2 seal is more than a symbol—it represents a thriving research enterprise where learning and discovery are deeply interconnected. Through close mentorship, faculty engage students in hands-on research experiences that not only contribute to new knowledge, but also cultivate the skills, curiosity, and perspective our students need to lead and innovate in their fields.”
The R2 designation is “Research 2: High Spending and Doctorate Production” and is classified by an institution spending at least $5 million on average, in a single year, on research and development and awards at least 20 research doctorates.
UCCS is one of several R1 and R2 institutions in the state of Colorado, along with Colorado School of Mines (R1), University of Denver (R1), CU Boulder (R1), CU Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus (R1), Colorado State University – Fort Collins (R1) and University of Northern Colorado (R2). UCCS’s R2 Carnegie Classification was officially reaffirmed in early 2025 after originally being bestowed in 2019.
The Carnegie Classification has been the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education since 1970. Derived from empirical data on colleges and universities, the Carnegie Classification was originally published in 1973, and subsequently updated in 1976, 1987, 1994, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2018 to reflect changes among colleges and universities. This framework has been widely used in the study of higher education, both as a way 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.
View guidelines for using and displaying the new seal here, and learn more about each designation level and see FAQs here.