Membership Data

CIC’s membership includes more than 700 nonprofit independent colleges and universities, state-based councils of independent colleges, and other higher education affiliates. Members represent a variety of locations, missions, programs, resources, sizes and interests.

Information on this page is updated as of June 30, 2025, and included in the 2024–2025 CIC Annual Report.

Overall Membership

CIC Institutions by Enrollment Size (Undergraduate FTE): 25% over 2,000; 41% 1,000-3,000; 34% under 1,000
CIC Institutions with a Distinctive Mission: 429 Religiously Affiliated Institutions; 113 Minority Serving Institutions; 28 Single Gender Institutions
Minority Serving Institutions include any institution that is designated as a Historically Black College or University, a Predominantly Black Institution, a Hispanic Serving Institution, an Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institution, an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution, a Native American Serving Nontribal Institution, or a tribal college.
CIC Institutions by Region: 49 New England; 117 Mid-Atlantic; 161 South; 188 Midwest; 73 West; 47 Far West; 20 International
Highest Degree Offered at CIC Institutions: 48% Doctoral Degree; 39% Master's Degree; 13% Bachelor's Degree
CIC Network Participation: 98 AI Ready; 66 Belong; 344 NetVUE; 333 OCSC; 421 TEP

Carnegie Classifications

In 2025, new Carnegie Classifications were released. CIC members are represented across the institutional classifications and demonstrate strong outcomes in the new student access and earnings “opportunity” classification.

2025 Carnegie Institutional Classification of CIC Members

Thirty-one new Carnegie Institutional Classifications built on a new framework were released in Spring 2025. Institutional Classification is descriptive and consists of three dimensions: award level focus, academic program mix, and size.

Mixed: Baccalaureate45
Mixed: Undergraduate/Graduate-Master’s Small26
Mixed: Undergraduate/Graduate-Doctorate Small20
Mixed: Undergraduate/Graduate-Doctorate Medium16
Professions-Focused: Baccalaureate Small113
Professions-Focused: Undergraduate/Graduate-Master’s Small80
Professions-Focused: Undergraduate/Graduate-Master’s Large/Medium24
Professions-Focused: Undergraduate/Graduate-Doctorate Small49
Professions-Focused: Undergraduate/Graduate-Doctorate Medium62
Special Focus: Arts and Sciences123
Special Focus: Nursing19
Special Focus: Other Health Professions17
Other Institutional Classification41
CIC members fall into many of these new categories. The ten classifications with the most members are shown above. The largest numbers are in the “Professions-Focused: Baccalaureate Small” and “Special Focus: Arts and Sciences” classifications.

2025 Carnegie Student Access and Earnings “Opportunity” Classification

Student Access and Earnings Classification is evaluative and identifies the extent to which institutions provide access to students from lower socioeconomic and historically underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds and the degree to which their students earn competitive wages by geography. There are six classifications drawn from two levels of access and three levels of earnings.

High Earnings: 13% Low Access, 13% High Access; Medium Earnings: 27% Low Access, 43% High Access; Low Earnings: 1% Low Access, 3% High Access
CIC members fall primarily fall into the Medium Earnings category, and 78 are “Opportunity Colleges” with high access and high earnings.

CIC Membership Survey

Every three years, CIC administers a survey to member presidents to better understand their needs and how CIC can best support them. In 2025, 13 percent of member institutions responded to the survey; they were representative of CIC’s overall membership. All responses indicated that CIC programs and services are valuable and responsive to current issues in independent higher education. In particular, respondents found professional development programs such as the Presidents Institute and the Institute for Chief Academic Officers, networks such as the Tuition Exchange Program and NetVUE, and research such as the KIT and FIT reports to be important.

In 2025, members noted the following issues to be top of mind:

  • The financial model for higher education and financial health and sustainability
  • The public perception of higher education
  • Navigating federal policy and legislation
  • Adapting to technological change