The CIP titles and program descriptions are intended to be generic categories into which program completions data can be placed, not exact duplicates of a specific major or field of study titles used by individual institutions and not exact duplicates of a specific major or field of study titles used by individual institutions.
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 used by state agencies, national associations, academic institutions, and employment counseling services for collecting, reporting, and analyzing instructional program data. (National Center for Education Statistics)