The U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) employs various categories to classify postsecondary institutions. This note outlines the different categories used in varying combinations in the special analysis and several of the indicators.

BASIC IPEDS CLASSIFICATIONS

The term “postsecondary institutions” is the category used to refer to institutions with formal instructional programs and a curriculum designed primarily for students who have completed the requirements for a high school diploma or its equivalent. For many analyses, however, comparing all institutions from across this broad universe of postsecondary institutions would not be appropriate. Thus, postsecondary institutions are placed in one of three levels, based on the highest award offered at the institution:

• 4-year-and-above institutions: Institutions or branches that award a 4-year degree or higher in one or more programs, or a postbaccalaureate, postmaster’s, or post-first-professional certificate.
  
  
• 2-year but less-than-4-year institutions: Institutions or branches that confer at least a 2-year formal award (certificate, diploma, or associate’s degree), or that have a 2-year program creditable toward a baccalaureate degree.
  
  
• Less-than-2-year institutions: Institutions or branches that have programs lasting less than 2 years that result in a terminal occupational award or are creditable toward a degree at the 2-year level or higher.

Postsecondary institutions are further divided according to these criteria: degree-granting versus nondegree-granting; type of financial control; and Title IV-participating versus not Title IV-participating.

Degree-granting institutions offer associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, doctor’s, and/or first-professional degrees that a state agency recognizes or authorizes. Nondegree-granting institutions offer other kinds of credentials and exist at all three levels. The number of 4-year nondegree-granting institutions is small compared with the number at both the 2-year but less-than-4-year and less-than-2-year levels.

IPEDS also classifies institutions at each of the three levels of institutions by type of financial control: public; private not-for-profit; or private for-profit (e.g., proprietary schools). Thus, IPEDS divides the universe of postsecondary institutions into nine different “sectors.” In some sectors (for example, 4-year private for-profit institutions), the number of institutions is small relative to other sectors. Institutions in any of these nine sectors can be degree- or nondegree-granting.

Institutions in any of these nine sectors can also be Title IV-participating or not. For an institution to participate in federal Title IV, Part C, financial aid programs, it must offer a program of study at least 300 clock hours in length; have accreditation recognized by the U.S. Department of Education; have been in business for at least 2 years; and have a Title IV participation agreement with the U.S. Department of Education.

• Indicator 6 includes 2-year and 4-year degree-granting institutions in its analysis.
  
  
• Indicators 18 and 19 include 2-year, 4-year, and less-than-2-year degree-granting institutions in their analyses.
  
  
• Indicators 31, 32, and the special analysis include 2-year and 4-year, public and private, degree-granting institutions in their analyses.
  
  
• Indicators 37 and 38 include 4-year, public and private, degree-granting institutions in their analyses.