Carnegie report designates UH a flagship university

According to a tweet from President Renu Khator at around 8:00 this morning, the University of Houston is now a flagship institution.

“Thank you Houston,” the president said via Twitter. “Thank you, Texas, for helping UH become (the) third public university in Texas to get on (the) Carnegie top list.”

A report by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which was released earlier today, puts UH in a list of top-tier schools, alongside such Texas universities as Rice, Texas A&M and the University of Texas.

But official flagship status has not yet been reached, since it is decided upon by the state legislature, which hasn’t yet awarded the coveted title to UH.

But President Khator believes that this is an integral step.

“I am so happy and so proud,” UH President Renu Khator said in a statement. “Our students — who today begin a new semester with this incredible news — can finally say they are getting a Tier One education.

“They will finally be able to take their diploma and say ‘I have graduated from a Carnegie Tier One university .’”

For now, UH students will have to add that it’s a designation according to the Carnegie Foundation, but after years of striving for and being evaded by it, flagship status if finally in reach of the third largest public university in Texas.

UPDATE (1:30 p.m)
“The designation makes UH one of only three public Carnegie-designated Tier One research universities in Texas, along with the University of Texas and Texas A&M,” Khator said in an email. “That’s right — 3 public in Texas, only 1 in Houston, have earned this recognition. Though this is not the end of our Tier One journey, it is a major milestone.”