Occidental College’s research activity has officially been recognized in the 2025 Carnegie Classifications, a categorization system that groups higher education institutions with similar degree types and research program characteristics.
Occidental received a research activity designation of Research College from the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the organizations that jointly determine the classifications.
This year, the Carnegie Classifications included three categories: Research 1 (R1), Research 2 (R2), and Research Colleges and Universities. Designations were determined by reported institutional research expenditures for 2021, 2022, and 2023. Institutions classified as Research Colleges and Universities, a designation that does not include institutions in the R1 and R2 categories, award at least $2.5 million to research and development on average in a single year. Occidental received more than $4.7 million in research funding in FY23, supporting projects such as the inter-institutional Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics, the Creating Science and Mathematics Opportunities for Occidental Students (COSMOS) program, and the Taking Stock study into the endocrine-disrupting impacts of personal care products used by Black women.
This is the first year that four-year undergraduate colleges such as Occidental have been included in the Carnegie Classifications. In November 2023, ACE and the Carnegie Foundation announced that they would update their historic Basic Classification to a new category, Institutional Classification, in 2025. The Institutional Classification groups institutions by more multidimensional characteristics, including degree type, fields of study, and institution size.
“This designation serves as a recognition of Occidental’s high level of scholarship,” says Kathryn Leonard, interim vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college. “It speaks to the caliber and impact of our faculty’s research and creative work.”
