Prairie View A&M and Tarleton State earn ‘high research activity’ rating

BRYAN/ COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Prairie View A&M University and Tarleton State University have attained the prestigious R2 Carnegie Classification, recognizing both campuses for their high level of research activity.

Prairie View A&M University’s research expenditures topped $105 million over the past five years, placing them in the Top 10 for historically black colleges and universities across the nation. Prairie View A&M — the top producer of black engineers in Texas — has more than 20 corporate research partnerships and produced more than 50 start-up companies from its research.

Tarleton State University has spent almost $60 million in faculty-led research over the past five years. Tarleton’s growing research portfolio includes data analytics for the federal crop insurance program that saved the U.S. Department of Agriculture more than $1.4 billion. Tarleton’s Center for Agribusiness Excellence alone has generated more than $80 million in research funds since it was founded.

Prairie View A&M and Tarleton join Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi as Texas A&M System campuses that have achieved this hard-earned designation. Texas A&M University, the System flagship, is ranked as R1 for “very high research activity.”

The Carnegie Classification has been the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education for the past four and a half decades. The Carnegie Classification is derived from empirical data on colleges and universities.

“This prestigious designation shows investing in faculty and facilities really pays off,” said John Sharp, Chancellor of The Texas A&M System.

Sharp said the recognition for all four universities is a return on investments made by the Texas Legislature and the Texas A&M System’s Board of Regents. The success reflects a focus on growing research budgets at all eleven universities in the Texas A&M System.

Texas A&M University, the System’s flagship, became the first Texas university to reach more than $1 billion in research expenditures last year. That milestone was achieved after Chancellor Sharp directed the investment of nearly $230 million over eight years through the Chancellor’s Research Initiative to recruit and retain top academic talent from across the nation.

“The A&M System is making unprecedented investments in faculty and facilities and I could not be more proud about it,” Chancellor Sharp said.

For more information about the Carnegie Classification, visit http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/.