Univ. of South Carolina Earns ‘Very High’ Research Designation
COLUMBIA, S.C.
The University of South Carolina continues to raise its academic profile with a $6 million federal grant for HIV prevention, and a designation by a leading education policy center as an institution of “very high research activity.”
The designation by the independent Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching puts USC among the nation’s top 95 research universities, public or private. USC was the only South Carolina school to meet that definition.
“In terms of self-confidence and faculty believing we can accomplish great things, it’s a shot in the arm. … It gives us an advantage in recruitment and tells students they can stay in the state and go to a great school,” says Dr. Harris Pastides, USC’s vice president for research and health sciences. “I hope it gives our state citizens a boost, a point of pride.”
The California-based foundation lists the 95 top-tier research schools in alphabetical order without rank. The list includes Ivy League universities such as Harvard and Cornell. Schools on the list in neighboring states include Emory University, the University of Georgia, Duke University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
The “very high research” category, as opposed to “high,” was based on factors including the number of faculty involved in research and how much research grant money the school received. The foundation changed its classification names this year.
