Minority Students Increasingly Cluster at Minority-Serving Institutions

The Chronicle of Higher Education The Chronicle of Higher Education Wednesday, November 28, 2007 Minority Students Increasingly Cluster at Minority-Serving Institutions, Federal Report Shows By JEAN EVANGELAUF Undergraduates who are members of minority groups are increasingly concentrated at colleges that are classified as "minority-serving," according to a U.S. Education Department report released on Tuesday. The report, "Characteristics of Minority-Serving Institutions and Minority Undergraduates Enrolled in These Institutions," shows that the number of two- and four-year colleges whose undergraduate enrollment is at least 25 percent minority jumped from 414 in 1984 to 1,254 in 2004. In 1984 minority-serving colleges enrolled 38 percent of all minority undergraduates; by 2004 they enrolled 58 percent of them. Over all, minority-serving colleges accounted for 32 percent of all colleges in 2004, up from 14 percent in 1984. That increase mirrored the growth in minority undergraduate enrollment, which climbed 146 percent, to 4.7 million. over the 20-year period. (See table.) The Education Department defines seven mutually exclusive categories of minority-serving institutions. Two are designated by federal law: historically black colleges and universities, or HBCU's, and tribal colleges. The other categories are based on undergraduate enrollment. American Indian-serving, Asian-serving, black-serving, and Hispanic-serving institutions are those at which the specified minority group accounts for at least 25 percent of enrollment, while each of the other minority groups makes up less than 25 percent of enrollment. A group of "other minority-serving" colleges includes institutions in which minority students make up at least half of enrollment but do not fit any other category. The largest numerical growth was in the category of black-serving colleges, whose number rose from 200 in 1984 to 622 two decades later. Over the same period, the number of Hispanic-serving colleges also climbed rapidly, from 58 to 366, the report says. Much of that growth came among for-profit colleges. In 2004, 36 percent of minority-serving colleges were in the for-profit sector, compared with 15 percent of non-minority-serving colleges. Black-serving colleges had the largest representation of for-profit colleges, with 43 percent, followed by Hispanic-serving colleges, of which 41 percent were for-profit. Diversity at Hispanic-Serving Colleges In 2004, Hispanic-serving colleges enrolled the largest share of all minority undergraduates, with 26.8 percent; followed by black-serving colleges (15.6 percent); Asian-serving colleges (7.5 percent); historically black colleges (5.1 percent); other minority-serving colleges (2.6 percent); and tribal and American Indian-serving colleges (0.6 percent). In addition to enrolling half of all Hispanic undergraduates in 2004, Hispanic-serving colleges also educated substantial numbers of other minority groups. Nineteen percent of all Asian undergraduates at American colleges that year were enrolled at Hispanic-serving institutions, along with 13 percent of American Indian undergraduates, and 11 percent of black undergraduates. Minority-serving institutions are more likely than other institutions to enroll low-income students and to have an above-average proportion of female students, according to the report. Except for Asian-serving colleges, minority-serving four-year institutions tended to be less selective than other institutions. While 76 percent of American Indian-serving colleges, 30 percent of Hispanic-serving colleges, 29 percent of HBCU's, and 23 percent of other black-serving colleges had open-admissions policies, only 9 percent of non-minority-serving colleges did, the report said. ------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2007 by The Chronicle of Higher Education