NJIT Earns Highest Research Rating From the Carnegie Classification®

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has been named a “Very High Research Activity (R1)” institution by the Carnegie Classification®, “the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education for the past four and a half decades.” NJIT is one of only three R1 research universities in New Jersey.

“Receiving the R1 designation is a major achievement for NJIT and is the direct result of our faculty, researchers and staff, as well as the investments we have made to support their research agendas,” said NJIT President Joel S. Bloom. “This rating is a strong indicator of NJIT’s ability for, and record of, securing highly competitive research funding. This rating fortifies the appreciating reputation of NJIT among peers throughout the higher education research community.”

This year’s Carnegie Classification® rates NJIT as “Very High Research Activity (R1)”— the highest category among doctoral universities. Through specialized research centers and laboratories, NJIT conducted more than $162 million in research in 2018, an increase of $32 million since 2016. In recent years, NJIT researchers have received numerous research awards, including 11 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awards. The university has also established many new research centers, including the Institute for Space Weather Sciences, the Institute for Brain and Neuroscience Research, and The Henry J. and Erna D. Leir Research Institute for Business, Technology, and Society. 

“This designation reflects the transformation NJIT is undergoing,” said Fadi P. Deek, provost and senior executive vice president of the university. “We have achieved a coveted Carnegie research classification by being designated as ‘R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity’ along with only 130 other institutions of higher education in the U.S. This is a reflection of the excellent research and scholarship that our faculty and students are engaged in, but we are also mindful of much more work to be done.”

The Carnegie Classification® is based on FY 2017 institutional data submitted by NJIT to the NSF. These data show research and development expenditures in STEM and other disciplines.

The Carnegie Classification® was developed by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education in 1970. Since then, it has become a widely used tool, and is considered the gold standard, for comparing American colleges and universities for both educational and research purposes. All accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities represented in the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) are included, and categorized by complex algorithmic methodology that incorporates data collection, processing and comparability.