Higher Education Institutions

Institutions providing tertiary education, ISCED levels 5 through 8 (short-cycle tertiary, bachelor's, master's and doctoral or equivalent levels) in the UNESCO International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011): the comprehensive research university, college and graduate school operating today as a broad, multi-faculty degree-granting institution. Belongs here: any comprehensive research university, professional college or graduate school not narrowly specialized in a single technical or liberal-arts mission, including an institution of ancient or medieval founding that continues operating today as a modern comprehensive university, such as the University of Bologna, the University of Paris and the University of al-Qarawiyyin. Does not belong here: primary and secondary schools, early childhood settings, or the governance and system bodies grouped separately below, none of which is itself a single degree-granting institution; a specialized institute of technology or single-discipline science university, grouped under Institutes of Technology and Specialized Science Universities; a small undergraduate-focused liberal arts college, grouped under Liberal Arts Colleges; and an ancient or medieval center of learning that no longer operates as a degree-granting institution today, grouped under Ancient and Medieval Centers of Learning. This remains the largest group in the atlas's institution roster even after this wave's mission-based split (193 of 259 live institution entities, 74.5 percent), since the modern comprehensive research university is still the atlas's dominant institution type by a wide margin; a further split by world region is the clear remaining gap for a successor, once this bucket again grows large enough to warrant it.