University of Memphis administrators are working to boost the school's image as an urban research university in an effort to attract more out-of-region students and increase the school's national standing.
"Our vision is to be recognized as one of America's top metropolitan research universities and really focus on the research issues that matter most in the communities where they reside," said President Shirley Raines.
The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, a branch of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, gave U of M its research designation in 1970 with the development of a college classification system.
Carnegie Senior Scholar Chun-Mei Zhao said the commission uses a formula to designate a university's level of research activity derived from seven factors, including the number of research staff and doctoral degrees awarded and the amount of research and development expenditures.
The commission discourages comparing institutions and does not publish its scoring system, nor does it rank the quality, impact or significance of research, Zhao said.