UWM maintains its top-tier research status

MILWAUKEE _ The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has retained its “gold standard” research classification from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, three years after earning the ranking for the first time.

UWM is one of 130 institutions of the 4,338 universities evaluated this year that earned inclusion in Carnegie’s “highest research activity” category, a designation that includes many Ivy League and public flagship institutions. In Wisconsin, only UWM and UW-Madison received the rating, often referred to as R1.

Before 2015, UWM had been ranked one tier below, as an R2 doctoral university.

“Achieving R1 status a second time is affirmation of the remarkable impact of UWM’s exceptional faculty, staff, doctoral students and researchers,” said UWM Chancellor Mark Mone. “Their extraordinary efforts continue to build UWM’s reputation as a top research university, with local, regional and global impact.”

UWM Provost Johannes Britz agreed.

“We are tremendously proud of this recognition from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education,” he said. “It represents decades of work on the part of UWM faculty and staff dedicated to growing our doctoral programs and research portfolio. We also give credit to the many talented doctoral students who choose to study and conduct their research here.”

This ranking helps UWM attract and retain talented faculty, researchers and graduate students. Also, it demonstrates that the university is contributing knowledge that can be used to solve some of the area’s — and the world’s — most complex problems.

The assessment comes on the heels of UWM’s national recognition for its undergraduate research program. The Council on Undergraduate Research recently chose UWM for its 2018 Campus-Wide Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishments because of the university’s high number of undergraduates involved in research each year.

First published in 1973, the Carnegie Classification is updated every three years.

In fiscal year 2018, UWM’s research expenditures totaled $58 million, with just over half of that amount – $29.5 million – coming from federal agencies. In 2016-17, UWM conferred 180 research/scholarship doctoral degrees and 65 professional practice doctoral degrees.

The Carnegie Classification ranks institutions into three categories based on the number of doctoral degrees awarded and the amount of research expenditures during the previous academic year.