Eleven universities in Missouri and Illinois have achieved a prestigious research ranking.
The Carnegie Foundation classified St. Louis University, Washington University, Missouri University of Science and Technology and 184 others schools as Research 1 institutions. That means that the institutions spend at least $50 million on research and are awarding at least 70 research doctorates per year. It is the highest research classification out there.
Several of those institutions — including Missouri S&T, SLU and University of Missouri-Kansas City — achieved R1 status for the first time.
They're pleased about that.
“There's a mood here that's exceptionally positive,” said David Borrok, vice provost and dean of the College of Engineering and Computing at S&T. “People are very happy that we've reached a point where a lot of hard work by a lot of good people that's been going on for a long time is recognized.”
The R1 status demonstrates that a university is doing research at an impactful level and is good at training students and developing workforces while also developing technologies and generally innovation, Borrok said.
President Fred P. Pestello called the SLU achievement “historic” in a statement that also acknowledged a $50 million gift from Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield.
Getting that kind of recognition can snowball, leading to more accolades and more money for research, while being helpful for recruiting students, especially international students, said Mushtaq Gunja, executive director of the Carnegie College Classification Systems.
The Carnegie rankings have been around for 50 years and are awarded every three years. The 2025 rankings were tabulated with a simplified methodology intended to help new institutions achieve R1 status. The new method also grouped similar institutions together.
“Everybody will know what they need to do, and everybody will understand what it means to be R1 and R2,” Gunja said.
For some institutions, the new methodology means certain boxes an institution had to check were suddenly gone.
“Once those barriers are kind of removed, I think people could see the quality work that we were doing all along,” Borrok said.
R1 institutions
Missouri
- Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla
- St. Louis University, St. Louis
- University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia
- University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City
- Washington University, St. Louis
Illinois
- Loyola University Chicago, Chicago
- Northwestern University, Evanston
- Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale
- University of Chicago, Chicago
- University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign
For a full list, see the Carnegie institution search.
