Association of American Universities

The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 63 universities in the United States (both public and private) and two universities in Canada. AAU membership is by invitation only and requires an affirmative vote of three-quarters of current members.

Association of American Universities

Formation	February 28, 1900; 123 years ago (1900-02-28)^[1]
Founded at	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Type	501(c)(3) nonprofit organization^[2]
Tax ID no.	52-1945674^[2]
Headquarters	William T. Golden Center for Science and Engineering, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Location	United States Canada
Coordinates	38°54′01″N 77°01′42″W / 38.90028°N 77.02833°W / 38.90028; -77.02833Coordinates: 38°54′01″N 77°01′42″W / 38.90028°N 77.02833°W / 38.90028; -77.02833
Membership	65
President	Barbara Snyder^[3]
Chair	Carol Folt
Website	www.aau.edu

Organization

The AAU was founded on February 28, 1900, by a group of 14 Doctor of Philosophy degree-granting universities^[a] in the United States to strengthen and standardize American doctoral programs.^[1] American universities—starting with Johns Hopkins University in 1876—were adopting the research-intensive German model of higher education. Lack of standardization damaged European universities' opinions of their American counterparts and many American students attended graduate school in Europe instead of staying in the U.S. The presidents of Harvard University, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, and the University of California sent a letter of invitation to nine other universities—Clark University, Catholic University of America, Cornell University, the University of Michigan, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and Yale University—to meet in Chicago in February 1900 to promote and raise standards.^[4] The AAU's founding members elected Harvard's Charles William Eliot as the association's first president^[1] and Stanford's David Starr Jordan as its first chairman.^[5]

In 1914, the AAU began accrediting undergraduate education at its member and other schools. German universities used the "AAU Accepted List" to determine whether a college's graduates were qualified for graduate programs. Regional accreditation agencies existed in the U.S. by the 1920s, and the AAU ended accrediting schools in 1948.^[6]

For its first six decades, the AAU functioned as a club for the presidents and deans of elite research universities to informally discuss educational matters, and its day-to-day operations were managed by an executive secretary.^[7] In the 1970s, the AAU shifted to a role of active advocacy on behalf of its members' interests; dues were raised, more staff members were hired, and its chief executive was given the title of president and the duty of becoming far more publicly visible than his predecessors.^[8]

Today, the AAU consists of 65 U.S. and Canadian universities of varying sizes and missions that share a commitment to research. The organization's primary purpose is to provide a forum for the development and implementation of institutional and national policies in order to strengthen programs in academic research, scholarship, and education at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels.

Benefits

The largest attraction of the AAU for many schools, especially nonmembers, is prestige. Since the AAU's founding, it has "been a grouping of the elite in the American university world," and "[n]ew presidents of nonmember universities often list gaining admission to the AAU as a goal of their administration."^[7] For example, in 2010 the chancellor of nonmember North Carolina State University described it as "the pre-eminent research-intensive membership group. To be a part of that organization is something N.C. State aspires to."^[9] A spokesman for nonmember University of Connecticut called it "perhaps the most elite organization in higher education. You'd probably be hard-pressed to find a major research university that didn't want to be a member of the AAU."^[10] In 2012, the newly elected chancellor of University of Massachusetts Amherst, a nonmember of AAU, reaffirmed the objective of elevating the campus to AAU standards and the hope of becoming a member in the near future, and called it a distinctive status.^[11] Because of the lengthy and difficult entrance process, boards of trustees, state legislators, and donors often see membership as evidence of the quality of a university.^[9]

The AAU acts as a lobbyist at its headquarters in Washington, DC, for research and higher education funding and for policy and regulatory issues affecting research universities. The association holds two meetings annually, both in Washington. Separate meetings are held for university presidents, provosts, and other officials. Because the meetings are private, they offer the opportunity for discussion without media coverage. Prominent government officials, businessmen, and others often speak to the groups.^[9]

Presidents

Executive	Term
Thomas A. Bartlett	1977–1982
Robert M. Rosenzweig	1983–1993
Cornelius J. Pings	1993–1998
Nils Hasselmo	1998–2006
Robert M. Berdahl	2006–2011
Hunter R. Rawlings III	2011–2016
Mary Sue Coleman	2016–2020
Barbara Snyder	2020–present

Statistics

As of 2004^[update], AAU members accounted for 58 percent^[b] of U.S. universities' research grants and contract income and 52 percent of all doctorates awarded in the United States. Since 1999, 43 percent of all Nobel Prize winners and 74 percent of winners at U.S. institutions have been affiliated with an AAU university. Approximately two-thirds of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2006 Class of Fellows are affiliated with an AAU university. The faculties at AAU universities include 2,993 members of the United States National Academies (82 percent of all members): the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine (2004).^[12]

• Undergraduate students: 1,044,759; 7 percent nationally
• Undergraduate degrees awarded: 235,328; 17 percent nationally
• Graduate students: 418,066; 20 percent nationally
• Master's degrees awarded: 106,971; 19 percent nationally
• Professional degrees awarded: 20,859; 25 percent nationally
• Doctorates awarded: 22,747; 52 percent nationally
• Postdoctoral fellows: 30,430; 67 percent nationally
• Students studying abroad: 57,205
• National Merit/Achievement Scholars (2004): 5,434; 63 percent nationally
• Faculty: approximately 72,000

Membership

AAU membership is by invitation only, which requires an affirmative vote of three-fourths of current members. Invitations are considered periodically, based in part on an assessment of the breadth and quality of university programs of research and graduate education, as well as undergraduate education. The association ranks its members using four criteria: research spending, the percentage of faculty who are members of the National Academies, faculty awards, and citations. Non-member universities whose research and education profile exceeds that of a number of current members may be invited to join the association; current members whose research and education profile falls significantly below that of other current members or below the criteria for admission of new members will be subject to further review and possible discontinuation of membership.^[13] A vote by two-thirds of the member institutions can revoke membership for poor rankings.^[14][15] As of 2022^[update] annual dues are $139,500.^[16] All 63 U.S. members of the AAU are also classified as Highest Research Activity (R1) Universities by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, as are three of the five former AAU members.

Current members

Institution^[17]	State or province	Control	Established	Year joined	Total students	Medical school^[18]^[19] (LCME accredited)	Engineering program^[20] (ABET accredited)	Land-Grant Institution^[21] (NIFA)
Boston University	Massachusetts	Private	1839	2012	30,009	Y	Y	N
Brandeis University	Massachusetts	Private	1948	1985	5,808	N	N	N
Brown University	Rhode Island	Private	1764	1933	8,619	Y	Y	N
California Institute of Technology	California	Private	1891	1934	2,231	N	Y	N
Carnegie Mellon University	Pennsylvania	Private	1900	1982	12,908	N	Y	N
Case Western Reserve University	Ohio	Private	1826	1969	11,824	Y	Y	N
Columbia University	New York	Private	1754	1900	29,250	Y	Y	N
Cornell University	New York	Private	1865	1900	21,904	Y	Y	Y
Dartmouth College	New Hampshire	Private	1769	2019^[22]	6,571	Y	Y	N
Duke University	North Carolina	Private	1838	1938	14,600	Y	Y	N
Emory University	Georgia	Private	1836	1995	14,513	Y	N^[c]	N
Georgia Institute of Technology	Georgia	Public	1885	2010	29,370	N	Y	N
Harvard University	Massachusetts	Private	1636	1900	21,000	Y	Y	N
Indiana University Bloomington	Indiana	Public	1820	1909	42,731	N^[d]	N	N
Johns Hopkins University	Maryland	Private	1876	1900	23,073	Y	Y	N
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Massachusetts	Private	1861	1934	11,319	N	Y	Y^[e]
McGill University	Quebec	Public	1821	1926	36,904	Y	Y	N
Michigan State University	Michigan	Public	1855	1964	49,300	Y	Y	Y
New York University	New York	Private	1831	1950	53,711	Y	Y	N
Northwestern University	Illinois	Private	1851	1917	21,208	Y	Y	N
Ohio State University	Ohio	Public	1870	1916	57,466	Y	Y	Y
Pennsylvania State University	Pennsylvania	Public	1855	1958	45,518	Y	Y	Y
Princeton University	New Jersey	Private	1746	1900	8,010	N	Y	N
Purdue University	Indiana	Public	1869	1958	39,256	N	Y	Y
Rice University	Texas	Private	1912	1985	8,212	N	Y	N
Rutgers University–New Brunswick	New Jersey	Public	1766	1989	41,565	Y^[25]	Y	Y
Stanford University	California	Private	1891	1900	15,877	Y	Y	N
Stony Brook University	New York	Public	1957	2001	26,814	Y	Y	N
Texas A&M University	Texas	Public	1876	2001	72,982	Y	Y	Y
Tufts University	Massachusetts	Private	1852	2021	11,024	Y	Y	N
Tulane University	Louisiana	Private	1834	1958	13,462	Y	Y	N
University at Buffalo	New York	Public	1846	1989	30,183	Y	Y	N
University of Arizona	Arizona	Public	1885	1985	40,223	Y	Y	Y
University of California, Berkeley	California	Public	1868	1900	36,204	N^[f]	Y	Y
University of California, Davis	California	Public	1905	1996	34,175	Y	Y	Y
University of California, Irvine	California	Public	1965	1996	29,588	Y	Y	Y
University of California, Los Angeles	California	Public	1919	1974	42,163	Y	Y	Y
University of California, San Diego	California	Public	1960	1982	30,310	Y	Y	Y
University of California, Santa Barbara	California	Public	1944	1995	25,057	N	Y	Y
University of California, Santa Cruz	California	Public	1965	2019^[26]	19,457	N	Y	Y
University of Chicago	Illinois	Private	1890	1900	14,954	Y	Y	N
University of Colorado Boulder	Colorado	Public	1876	1966	32,775	N	Y	N
University of Florida	Florida	Public	1853	1985	49,042	Y	Y	Y
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Illinois	Public	1867	1908	44,520	Y	Y	Y
University of Iowa	Iowa	Public	1847	1909	31,065	Y	Y	N
University of Kansas	Kansas	Public	1865	1909	27,983	Y	Y	N
University of Maryland, College Park	Maryland	Public	1856	1969	37,631	N	Y	Y
University of Michigan	Michigan	Public	1817	1900	43,426	Y	Y	N
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	Minnesota	Public	1851	1908	52,376	Y	Y	Y
University of Missouri	Missouri	Public	1839	1908	35,441	Y	Y	Y
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	North Carolina	Public	1789	1922	29,390	Y	N^[g]	N
University of Oregon	Oregon	Public	1876	1969	22,980	N	N	N
University of Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania	Private	1740	1900	24,630	Y	Y	N
University of Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania	Public	1787	1974	28,649	Y	Y	N
University of Rochester	New York	Private	1850	1941	10,290	Y	Y	N
University of Southern California	California	Private	1880	1969	48,500	Y	Y	N
University of Texas at Austin	Texas	Public	1883	1929	51,000	Y	Y	N
University of Toronto	Ontario	Public	1827	1926	84,000	Y	Y	N
University of Utah	Utah	Public	1850	2019^[28]^[29]	32,994	Y	Y	N
University of Virginia	Virginia	Public	1819	1904	24,360	Y	Y	N
University of Washington	Washington	Public	1861	1950	43,762	Y	Y	N
University of Wisconsin–Madison	Wisconsin	Public	1848	1900	43,275	Y	Y	Y
Vanderbilt University	Tennessee	Private	1873	1950	12,795	Y	Y	N
Washington University in St. Louis	Missouri	Private	1853	1923	14,117	Y	Y	N
Yale University	Connecticut	Private	1701	1900	13,609	Y	Y	N

Former members

	State or province	Control	Established	Year joined	Year left	Total students	Conference Affiliation
Catholic University of America^[h]^[30]	Washington, D.C.	Private	1887	1900	2002	5,771	Landmark Conference
Clark University^[i]^[31]	Massachusetts	Private	1887	1900	1999	3,498 (2019)	New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference
Iowa State University^[j]^[32]^[33]	Iowa	Public	1858	1958	2022	30,708 (2021)	Big 12
Syracuse University^[k]^[34]	New York	Private	1870	1966	2011	21,322 (2020)	Atlantic Coast Conference
University of Nebraska–Lincoln^[l]^[35]	Nebraska	Public	1869	1909	2011	25,820 (Fall 2018)	Big Ten Conference

Map of schools

 

 

Rice

 

Tulane

 

Buffalo

 

Arizona

 

UC Berkeley

 

UCLA

 

Oregon

 

USC

 

Stanford

 

Washington

 

Colorado

 

Texas A&M

 

Florida

 

Vanderbilt

 

Missouri

 

Penn State

 

Rutgers

 

Indiana

 

Michigan

 

Michigan State

 

Ohio State

 

Illinois

 

Iowa

 

Minnesota

 

Northwestern

 

Purdue

 

Wisconsin

 

Maryland

 

Kansas

 

Texas

 

Ga. Tech

 

Virginia

 

UNC-Chapel Hill

 

Duke

 

Pitt

 

Brown

 

Columbia

 

Cornell

 

Penn

 

Princeton

 

Yale

 

Caltech

 

UC Davis

 

UC Irvine

 

UC San Diego

 

UC Santa Barbara

 

UC Santa Cruz

 

Emory

 

U. of Chicago

 

Johns Hopkins

 

Five schools*

 

 

 

 

 

Wash U.

 

NYU

 

Stony Brook

 

Rochester

 

Case Western

 

Carnegie Mellon

 

Dartmouth

 

Toronto

 

McGill

 

Utah

class=notpageimage|

A map of the AAU schools, with private schools marked blue and public schools marked red. Five private schools in Greater Boston are not labeled separately due to their close geographic proximity: Boston University, Brandeis, Harvard, MIT, and Tufts.

 

Advocacy

In 2014, the AAU supported the proposed Research and Development Efficiency Act arguing that the legislation "can lead to a long-needed reduction in the regulatory burden currently imposed on universities and their faculty members who conduct research on behalf of the federal government."^[36] According to the AAU, "too often federal requirements" for accounting for federal grant money "are ill-conceived, ineffective, and/or duplicative."^[36] This wastes the researchers' times and "reduces the time they can devote to discovery and innovation and increases institutional compliance costs."^[36]

Similar organizations in other countries

Similar organizations around the world include the Russell Group (United Kingdom), U15 (Germany), League of European Research Universities (Europe), BRICS Universities League (BRICS), Association of East Asian Research Universities (mainland China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), C9 League (China), Group of Eight (Australia), RU11 (Japan), and the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities (Canada).

See also

• List of higher education associations and alliances
• List of research universities in the United States

Notes

1. The Association of American Universities was founded by the University of California, The University of Chicago, Catholic University of America, Clark University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Michigan, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and Yale University, all of which were its first members.^[1]
2. Over $15.9 billion: NIH: $9.1 billion, 60 percent of total academic research funding. Research Funding: National Science Foundation: $2.0 billion, 63 percent of total academic research funding Department of Defense: $1.2 billion, 56 percent of total academic research funding Department of Energy: $505.2 million, 63 percent of total academic research funding NASA: $673.2 million, 57 percent of total academic research funding Department of Agriculture: $271.9 million, 41 percent of total academic research funding.
3. Although Emory shares a joint engineering department with Georgia Tech, the program is accredited through Georgia Tech.^[23]
4. While the funding numbers of the Indiana University School of Medicine are reported through IUB, IUSM is accredited through its main campus at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.
5. USDA has confirmed that MIT is eligible to apply for grants that are available only to land-grant institutions, the State of Massachusetts chooses to allocate its federal capacity appropriations to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.^[24]
6. The University of California, Berkeley is closely tied with the LCME-accredited University of California, San Francisco, which only provides graduate-level courses. The two universities share a joint program
7. UNC-Chapel Hill offers an ABET accredited Biomedical Engineering degree jointly with North Carolina State University. The engineering courses are offered through the NC State College of Engineering, while the medical courses are offered through UNC-Chapel Hill.^[27]
8. Departed as a result of "institutional emphases and energies" that differed from the other AAU members.
9. Departed because of a shift in the AAU's emphasis to large research universities.
10. Iowa State departed claiming that AAU's internal ranking indicators unfairly favor institutions with high levels of NIH funding and noted that its strength is not in biomedical research because the school does not have a medical school.
11. Because of a dispute over how to count nonfederal grants, Syracuse voluntarily withdrew from the AAU in 2011. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that after "it became clear that Syracuse wouldn't meet the association's revised membership criteria, university officials decided that they would leave the organization voluntarily, rather than face a vote like Nebraska's, and notified the leadership of their intentions."
12. Removed from the AAU. Chancellor Harvey Perlman said that the lack of an on-campus medical school (the Medical Center is a separate campus of the University of Nebraska system) and the AAU's disregarding of USDA-funded agricultural research in its metrics hurt the university's performance in the association's internal ranking system. In 2010 Perlman stated that had Nebraska not been part of the AAU, the Big Ten Conference would likely not have invited it to become the athletic conference's 12th member.

References

1. "Colleges Will Co-operate: Organization of the Association of American Universities". The Washington Post. March 1, 1900. p. 2.
2. "Association Of American Colleges And Universities. December 21, 2018, at the Wayback Machine". Tax Exempt Organization Search. Internal Revenue Service. December 20, 2018.
3. "Case Western President Named Head of AAU". Inside Higher Ed. from the original on February 19, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
4. "Editorial: Association of American Universities". Educational Review. 19: 404–405. April 1900. from the original on May 11, 2022. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
5. "For Uniform Requirements: Universities Will Fix Standard For Higher Degrees". The Baltimore Sun;. March 1, 1900. p. 2.
6. "The Association of American Universities: A Century of Service to Higher Education 1900–2000". Association of American Universities. from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
7. Rosenzweig, Robert M. (2001). The Political University: Policy, Politics, and Presidential Leadership in the American Research University. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 20. ISBN 9780801868191. from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
8. Rosenzweig, Robert M. (2001). The Political University: Policy, Politics, and Presidential Leadership in the American Research University. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 21. ISBN 9780801868191. from the original on May 11, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
9. Fain, Paul (April 21, 2010). "As AAU Admits Georgia Tech to Its Exclusive Club, Other Universities Await the Call". Chronicle of Higher Education. from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
10. Hine, Chris (June 13, 2010). "Nebraska has it all to attract Big Ten, most importantly AAU membership". Chicago Tribune. from the original on September 6, 2011. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
11. UMass Amherst: Kumble R. Subbaswamy – Feature Story July 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Umass.edu (May 13, 2012). Retrieved on 2013-07-15.
12. AAU Facts and Figures September 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed August 24, 2008.
13. "Membership Policy | Association of American Universities (AAU)". from the original on March 16, 2022. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
14. Abourezk, Kevin (April 29, 2011). "Research universities group ends UNL's membership". Lincoln Journal Star. from the original on May 3, 2011. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
15. Selingo, Jeffrey J. (April 29, 2011). "U. of Nebraska-Lincoln Is Voted Out of Assn. of American Universities". Chronicle of Higher Education. from the original on May 2, 2011. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
16. "ISU ends membership with prestigious Association of American Universities". www.thegazette.com. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
17. . Association of American Universities. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
18. "Accredited MD Programs in the United States". LCME. Liaison Committee on Medical Education. from the original on May 16, 2018. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
19. "AAU Peer Institutions". Data Analytics. August 10, 2016. from the original on May 14, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
20. "ABET ACCREDITED PROGRAM SEARCH". ABET. ABET. from the original on May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
21. "Land-Grant Colleges and Universities". National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
22. "Dartmouth Joins the Association of American Universities | Dartmouth News". news.dartmouth.edu. from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
23. "Accreditation and Assessment". Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University School of Medicine. from the original on May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
24. "The U.S. Land-Grant University System: Overview and Role in Agricultural Research" (PDF). The U.S. Land-Grant University System: Overview and Role in Agricultural Research Congressional Research Service. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
25. "Accredited U.S. Programs". LCME. Retrieved March 16, 2023.
26. Hernandez-Jason, Scott (November 6, 2019). . UC Santa Cruz. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
27. "Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering". Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering @ UNC & NC State. from the original on May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
28. "The U invited to join the Association of American Universities | @theU". from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
29. "Three Leading Research Universities Join the Association of American Universities (AAU)". from the original on April 29, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
30. O'Connell, The Most Rev. David M. (2002). "From the President's Desk". The Catholic University of America. from the original on June 1, 2013. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
31. Peter Schmidt, "Clark U. Leaves Association of American Universities; Others May Follow" (September 10, 1999). Chronicle of Higher Education.
32. "Iowa State concludes its AAU membership". Iowa State University (Press release). from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
33. Jaschik, Scott (April 22, 2022). "Iowa State announces its departure from AAU". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
34. Selingo, Jeffrey J. (May 2, 2011). "Facing an Ouster From an Elite Group of Universities, Syracuse U. Says It Will Withdraw". Chronicle of Higher Education. from the original on May 4, 2011. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
35. Lewin, Tamar (May 3, 2011). "American Universities Group Votes to Expel Nebraska". The New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
36. . Association of American Universities. July 14, 2014. Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2014.

External links

• Official website