Howard University is striving to regain a prestigious distinction for a research university known as R1 status.
The American Council on Education and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching gives the classification to universities with high research activity.
Howard became the first and only historically Black university with the status in 1987 but lost it in 2005 due to requirement changes.
Bruce Jones, senior vice president of research at Howard, and a team of professors have worked over the past six years to get the university the status.
Last November, the ACE and Carnegie Foundation announced new criteria for colleges and universities to obtain R1 status, including producing at least 70 doctoral degrees and spending $50 million annually on research.
“It’s about producing leaders and scholars who are well educated, well informed and equipped with the tools that they need to go out into the world,” Jones said.
Howard produced 91 degrees and spent $81 million on research in 2023, putting it on path to regain its status, which the university’s research staff says could allow for more communities to receive aid.
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Pamela Clarke, the senior director of research at Howard, said the university wants to continue to grow to sustain the R1 status and help other HBCUs achieve the same ranking.
“We could get more funding to do so,” said Joseph Wilkins, an assistant professor at Howard. “We could get more opportunities to do so, we can recruit higher quality of students.”
