2019-20 measurement cycle this increased 16.4% to 325 doctoral graduates. The table below illustrates the change in the two measurement cycles and the potential change in rank, showing that UNT made progress in every doctoral category – which include Humanities, Social Sciences, STEM, Other Research Doctorates, and Other Professional Doctorates.

Each doctoral variable is weighted differently and bringing up our standing in one category could more significantly impact our overall standing than progress in another category. In the short-term a positive change in social science graduates has the highest degree of impact on our overall Carnegie rank, due to the relative weight, our position in terms of number of graduates and the competitive landscape of universities clustered around us. Our gains in each variable will positively impact our overall position. That said, the 73% growth in social sciences doctoral graduates will be critical relative to our positioning in the next Carnegie evaluation.

Table 1. UNT Doctoral Graduates in Carnegie Measurement Cycles

*Compares 2019-20 Doctoral Graduates to the 2016-17 data nationally. The number reported would be our rank if all universities do not change their position in the current Carnegie cycle. While we know universities will change position, this data is intended to show relative progress by doctoral variable.

** Gerontology was phased out as a degree and reorganized as the PhD in Health Services Research degree which has growing enrollment and will produce more doctoral graduates in coming years. It currently falls under the Gerontology CIP code. THECB asked UNT to change the CIP code which will begin reported starting next year. This change will result in this doctorate likely moving from a research doctorate in social sciences to the Other Research Doctorate variable, we are seeking to verify with Carnegie to verify the CIP code under which this doctorate will fall in future Carnegie cycles. This change results placement in a category with a lower weight, but on the plus side moves the doctorate into a category in which we perform particularly strongly.

*** UNT will never move much on this variable, which favors universities with academic medical centers and includes M.D. and other professional health profession degrees. This variable has the lowest weight among the doctoral degree variables.

PostDoc/Research Staff: In 2016, we had 55 postdocs/research staff. This included 31 postdocs and 24 research staff that held doctorates. For the Fall of 2019, this variable grew to 42 postdocs and 24 research staff – for a total of 66 postdocs/research staff, an increase of 20%. In the 2018 Carnegie report UNT ranked #122 among R1 universities and #151 among all research universities. Given our growth if all universities stayed the same, we would move to #114 among R1 universities and #142 overall.

Preliminary Data

Faculty Count: The faculty count is based on the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty at the university. In the fall of 2017, UNT had a total tenured/tenure-track faculty count of 737 faculty, ranking UNT #107 among R1 universities and #122 among all research universities. UNT has experienced a growth in faculty over the last few years, with a focus on increase tenure-track faculty to support our research mission. We are projecting that the full growth in tenured/tenure-track faculty for the Fall of 2020 won’t be shown, due to the current hiring freeze and faculty who have accepted the voluntary separation agreement due to COVID-19. The current estimate is that our faculty count will be approximately 840 faculty, an increase of 14%. Given our growth if all universities stayed the same, we would move to #101 among R1 universities and #107 overall. While this increase is not as it would have been if COVID-19 had not caused delays in hiring for Fall 2020. The faculty count is used to calculate research expenditures per faculty member in STEM/Non-STEM and the per capita research staff number. UNT generally performs poorly in research expenditures per capita because Carnegie uses the total faculty count as the denominator and divides that into STEM research expenditures as one variable, Non-STEM research expenditures, and STEM postdocs/research staff. This method hurts UNT because the distribution of our faculty is more heavily weighted in non-grant/non-STEM areas than land-grant or STEM focused universities. A smaller denominator in faculty count would improve our per capita measures. All this said, we know that all research universities headcounts will likely be impacted for the fall due to COVID-19 so this change may impact all universities.

Per Capita PostDoc/Research Staff: In 2016, our ratio was 0.07 ranking UNT as #123 among R1 universities and #172 among all research universities. The way this variable is calculated is by dividing the number of postdocs/research staff by the number of tenured/tenure-track faculty. Because of the growth in the number of postdocs/research staff, this positively impacts the ratio. Based on the preliminary faculty count the projected ratio is 0.8, a projected increase of 11%. Given our growth if all universities stayed the same, we would move to #110 among R1 universities and #162 overall. Final calculation of this variable will be possible once the official faculty headcount for Fall 2020 is available.

Final Data Available During the Fall Semester

University Enrollment: This data will be reported based on the Fall Census. University enrollment is not a variable that will be critical in our Carnegie evaluation as it is not used in the direct determination of R1/R2 universities. We know that every university nationally will see enrollment impacts as a result of COVID. Fortunately, this will have no impact on our standing as a research university.