The purpose of the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) is to provide a taxonomic scheme that will support the accurate tracking, assessment, and reporting of fields of study and program completions activity. CIP was originally developed by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 1980, with revisions occurring in 1985 and 1990. The 2000 edition of the CIP (CIP-2000) is the third revision of the taxonomy and presents an updated taxonomy of instructional program classifications and descriptions.  The CIP is the accepted federal government statistical standard on instructional program classifications and is used in a variety of education information surveys and databases.  The CIP is also used by the National Academy of Sciences, state agencies, national associations, academic institutions, and employment counseling services as the basis for collecting, reporting, and analyzing instructional program data.

Organization of the CIP Taxonomy

The programs within the CIP taxonomy are organized on 3 levels:
1) 2-digit series
2) 4-digit series
3) 6-digit program level

The CIP codes and their corresponding programs are listed in ascending order by the code number. Skips or breaks in code continuity result from codes/programs that have either been moved within the taxonomy or deleted.  The 2-digit Series codes and programs represent summary groups of related programs.

The 2-digit codes and programs are located at the beginning of each program group; the program titles appear in capital letters (examples:  01. AGRICULTURE, AGRICULTURE OPERATIONS, AND RELATED SCIENCES; 13. EDUCATION, and 22. LEGAL PROFESSIONS AND STUDIES).  Each 2-digit group contains both 4-digit series and 6-digit code programs.

The 4-digit Series codes and programs represent an intermediate aggregation of programs.  The 4-digit series and the programs that comprise them are listed in numerical sequence. Program titles at this level appear as follows:  01.00 Agriculture, General; 01.01 Agricultural Business and Management, and 01.02 Agricultural Mechanization.

The 6-digit codes and program listings represent single instructional programs.  These are the most detailed program classifications within the CIP; they are also the codes and programs used by institutions to report degree completions and fields of study data.  The numbering sequence at this level is similar to the 4-digit Series sequence, with two more digits added after the 4-digit Series number. The standard format for the 6-digit programs is as follows: 01.0101 Agricultural Business and Management, General; and 19.0707 Family and Community Services.  Programs with a more general focus appear at the beginning of the Series (example:  Agriculture Business and Management, General) (code 01.0101) appears as the first program listing.  An "Other" category appears as the final program within the series.  This coding option is included to provide a category for reporting data on specific programs that are not listed within the series (example: 01.0199, Agricultural Business and Management, Other.).

Please see the CIP Code Directory for an explanation of the program arrangement sequence.

This information was taken from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

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