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Minorities in Higher Education

Despite gains in minority enrollments at U.S. colleges and universities over the past two decades, African-Americans and Hispanics still lag behind their white counterparts.

Minority enrollment in the nation’s colleges and universities has grown by 122 percent over the past 20 years, according to the American Council on Education’s Minorities in Higher Education Annual Status Report. But despite the gains, the report notes, the gap in college participation rates for white, African-American, and Hispanic high school graduates has widened.

In 1978-80 college participation rates for all races were at about 30 percent, according to the report, but by 1998-2000, 46 percent of white high school graduates were enrolled in college compared with only 40 percent of African-Americans and 34 percent of Hispanics.

The report also finds disparities in the participation rates of minority men and women. In 1978-80, 28.4 percent of African-American female high school graduates were enrolled in college, compared with 30 percent of their male counterparts. By 1998-2000, 42 percent of African-American females were enrolled in college while male enrollment numbers grew to only 37 percent. The story is similar for Hispanic women—their participation rate jumped from 27 percent to 37 percent during the same time period, while the numbers of Hispanic men enrolled in college remained at 31 percent. By 2000-01, women made up 59 percent of the total minority college population.

“The good news is that overall, more students of color are enrolling in higher education, showing the impact of focus and hard work over the past 20 years,” said Marc Saperstein, president of the GE Foundation, the organization whose grant funds the study. “The bad news is that there are still major disparities in the participation rates.”

The report also profiles first professional and doctoral degrees, and finds that minorities are responsible for all of the growth in the number of these types of degrees awarded over the past 20 years. Additionally, minority faculty members have doubled their numbers to over 82,000 and increased their share of total faculty positions from 9 percent to 14.4 percent.

The study uses data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the Census Bureau, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. To learn more or to order a copy of the report, visit www.acenet.edu/news/press_release/2003/10october/minority_report.cfm.