Tarleton State's Fort Worth campus.
Christmas came early for Tarleton State with Texas-sized news this week.
The university was elevated to the designation of Doctoral Universities: High Research Activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
Also known as Carnegie R2, the standing puts Tarleton among 132 universities across the country designated as high research and only one of a handful to move up from Master’s Colleges and Universities-Larger Programs (M1). The reclassification becomes official in February.
“This prestigious designation shows that investing in faculty and facilities really pays off,” says John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M University System in a statement. “I could not be more proud.”
Sharp said the recognition is a return on investments made by the Legislature and the A&M System Board of Regents.
Tarleton offers degree programs for more than 14,000 students in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, at RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan.
Criteria for R2 designation considers the number of research/scholarship doctorates awarded annually and a threshold of $5 million in discovery expenditures, according to information provided by Tarleton. Tarleton has graduated more than 130 doctoral students and spent some $60 million in faculty-led research over the past five years. The university’s doctor of philosophy in criminal justice started in fall 2019, and a doctorate in counseling is planned for fall 2022, pending approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
“Our new status as a Carnegie R2 institution endorses what we already know — that we are a dynamic research university with distinguished professors and exceptional student researchers dedicated to advancing life-changing breakthroughs,” says Tarleton President James Hurley.
Among other topics, university researchers are probing chemotherapy delivery systems, gender-based violence, dairy cow nutrition, rural communication and healthcare, bioenergy recovery, social media, chronic stress in law enforcement, brain cell death after a heart attack, biodiversity, child development, mental health, pollinators and food production, and disaster epidemiology.
Under Hurley’s direction, the university also established the Faculty Development and Research Initiative, unveiled this fall. It provides more time for professors to uncover fresh knowledge by reducing classroom teaching and backfilling instructional capacity with high-achieving graduate students.
Tarleton’s commitment to encouraging research through innovative instruction is key to its10-year strategic plan, “Tarleton Forward 2030: Our Future-Focused Strategic Plan.”
“Tarleton’s faculty research is at the forefront of invention and inspiration,” says Rupa Iyer, vice president for Tarleton’s Division of Research, Innovation and Economic Development. “Our new R2 designation is a tribute to their extraordinary ability to move ideas from vision to reality.”