R2 Status Update
TU’s quest for R2 status “will require significant collaborative efforts across campus,” suggests Matthew Chambers, the Associate Provost for Administration and Finance, “but we are confident that with the investments we’ve made and will continue to make, and with the dedicated faculty and staff we have, we will get there.”
R2 requirements and current status
In order to be minimally eligible for R2 status, universities must graduate 20 research doctoral students annually and have at least $5 million in research expenditures. For FY 2019, TU’s research expenditures were $3.4 million. Planned investments in the research area will allow us to meet and exceed the $5 million minimum quickly.
TU currently awards research/scholarship doctoral degrees in three programs: Instructional Technology (EdD), Occupational Science (ScD), and Information Technology (DSc). Investing in the doctoral degree programs TU currently has in place will be the quickest path for the institution to reach R2 status. In order to grow these programs, we will focus on increasing enrollment as well as shortening time to degree. Even as we begin these investments, we will also look to build a modest portfolio of additional doctoral programs that will require both USM and MHEC support.
Increasing investments in academic affairs
Reaching the minimal status for R2 would be attainable with smaller, strategic investments, but we do not aspire merely to qualify for R2 status; rather, we aspire to be nationally recognized as an institution that demonstrates excellence in research, creative scholarship, and teaching at the R2 level. To do so requires both short and long-term investments.
To date, TU has increased investment in academic affairs by $9.5 million, with increased pay to adjunct faculty, converting lecturers to fully benefitted positions and increasing their base pay, adding graduate assistant lines, increasing undergraduate research support, and adding new tenure-track faculty lines. In the next two years, we will invest roughly $7 million in more faculty and staff lines, increased faculty research support, and increased graduate student support.
Another pillar of TU’s plan to reach R2 status involves investing and expanding the inventory of academic affairs space on campus, including both classroom and research space. With the opening of the new Science Complex, construction of the new College of Health Professions building well underway, and plans to renovate Smith Hall, TU’s academic footprint will continue to grow in the coming decade.
|