UH’s recognition by the Carnegie Foundation in January as a Tier One school does not mean its work is over — the University has many more goals it must achieve.
The two major goals are obtaining recognition by the Center for Measuring University Performance in its annual Top American Research Universities report and an invitation into the Association of American Universities.
“UH currently ranks in the top 50 on three of the TARU measures,” Executive Director of Media Relations Richard Bonnin said. “The president’s goal is to rank in the top 50 on five measures and rank in the top 25 on at least one measure.”
According to the UH website, Texas Tech and UT Dallas have measures in the top 50. While Texas Tech has two measures and UT Dallas has one, neither school met the $40 million threshold for inclusion in TARU.
UH is the only “emerging research university” to be named a Top American Research University, the website reports.
While the University is well on its way to reaching President Renu Khator’s goal in regards to TARU, the goal to gain membership in the AAU might not be reached for several years.
“The Association of American Universities is an association of 63 leading public and private research universities in the United States and Canada,” Bonnin said. “Membership in AAU is by invitation and based on the high quality of programs of academic and scholarship and undergraduate, graduate and professional education in a number of fields, as well as general recognition that a university is outstanding by reason of the excellence of its research and education programs.”
Of the 63 universities, three have been granted membership in the last decade.
Georgia Tech University was the last school invited to join in 2010. Texas A&M was granted membership in 2001.
Bonnin said though there are many Tier One schools that are not members of AAU, recognition by the group would be the “icing on the cake” for UH.
“The president believes we still have unfinished business to solidify our place among nationally competitive research universities, including broadening our overall excellence and strengthening our performance and reputation for student success,” he said.
I wish the President and the University Communication Office would stop distorting the Carnegie classifications in a very unethical and misleading way… This type of false and misleading advertisement is hurting UH's credibility.
Carnegie classification is NOT Tier One designation!!
While President Khator is a good motivational speaker, the use of such misleading distortions make her speeches reminiscent of late night sleazy TV infomercials…. Not a good thing for a serious university.
These misleading speeches reflects the fact that the current administration is clueless about Tier-One level research. The President and the Provost have no research credentials and no Tier-One experience.
All the achievements so far (e.g., Carnegie classification) were based on results obtained before they took the helm at UH. The decisions they have made here at UH have been disastrous: Misguided "investments" that wasted enormous amount of resources without adding anything to Tier One research enterprise. These bad decisions will start showing their effects in a couple of years.
This man speaks the truth! The so-called Tier One status is for research and does NOT classify UH as a Tier One academic research institution. We still have a long way to go before we are given the Tier One designation that UT Austin has.
The UH admins. obsession for status and ranks knows no bounds and, in the long run, will hurt students and undergraduate academics.