On April 24, 2025, the Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education released the fully redesigned Carnegie Classifications, and the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) was designated as a Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate-Master's Large/Medium university in the 2025 Institutional Classification. For the new Student Access and Earnings Classification, UHD received the “Higher Access, Medium Earnings” designation.
“As part of our mission to serve first generation, transfer, and non-traditional students, we are mindful of the socio-economic impact a degree of value from UHD can mean for our more than 70,000 alumni,” said Dr. Deborah E. Bordelon, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. “I applaud the addition of the Student Access and Earnings Classification as we strive to change lives through higher education. Importantly, 70% of UHD freshman students are the first in their families to attend college, giving us the opportunity to change the economic trajectory of families over generations.”
UHD received the “Higher Access, Medium Earnings” designation with a 1.51 Access Ratio because 79% of students are underrepresented minorities and 52.36% of the student body receives Pell Grants. UHD’s Earning Ratio is 1.45 with $50,849 as the 8-year median earnings. The Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education redesigned the classifications as part of an ongoing effort to make the classifications more useful, relevant, and reflective of the nation’s ever-evolving higher education landscape.
The redesigned Institutional Classification, formerly called the Basic Classification, organizes institutions based on a fuller set of dimensions, including a wider look at the types of degrees they award, the subjects in which they award degrees, and the size of the institution. UHD’s classification Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate-Master's Large/Medium, includes 87 institutions, representing 2% of U.S. colleges and universities in the Institutional Classification.
The new Student Access and Earnings Classification examines the extent to which an institution is enrolling students who reflect the communities it serves and whether an institution’s former students go on to earn competitive wages compared to peers in their area. The Student Access and Earnings Classification aims to spur collaboration and institutional improvement with a focus on how higher education can foster opportunities for student success.
The classification is based on data institutions reported to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), data that was collected by the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, and data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Institutions receive two measures: one for access, which is based on the percentage of students who receive Pell Grants and the percentage of undergraduate students who are from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds, and one that is based on undergraduate students' post-attendance earnings eight years after entering the institution. In the classification, this data has been contextualized to consider local demographic and economic data. UHD’s classification, Higher Access, Medium Earnings, includes 1,321 institutions, representing 43% of U.S. colleges and universities in the Student Access and Earnings Classification.
To see all institutions included in these classifications as well as an interactive Student Access and Earnings Classification visualization, visit carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu.