The Minorities in Higher Education Annual Status Report, issued Oct. 8 by the American Council on Education, found that the number of minority students enrolled in U.S. colleges increased from 2 million in 1981 to 4.3 million in 2001, an increase of 122 percent. However, the study found that despite the increase, white students still chose to attend college at a rate higher than minority students.
In two decades, the college enrollment rate increased 14 percent for whites, 11 percent for blacks and five percent for Hispanics. Still, 46 percent of white high school graduates choose to attend college, compared with only 40 percent of blacks and 37 percent of Hispanics.
“Colleges and universities have experienced substantial gains in minority enrollment over the last 20 years, but there is still much more to be done,” said David Ward, president of the American Council on Education. “We must redouble our efforts to improve the rates at which students of color enroll in postsecondary institutions if minorities underrepresented in higher education are to achieve parity with their white counterparts.”
Dr. William B. Harvey, ACE’s vice president and the director of the council’s Office of Minorities in Education, agreed.
“It’s good news in the sense of the substantial number of students of color enrolling in colleges and universities,” Harvey said. “What’s unfortunate is that we’re not increasing the percentage of students of color so that it parallels the number of white students enrolled.”
Other study findings were more encouraging. Research shows that college enrollment rates for female minority students had significantly increased between 1981 and 2001.
Black females in 2001 were more likely than black males to enroll in college. Twenty years ago, only 28.4 percent of black females with a high school degree chose to attend college, compared with 30 percent of black males.
In 2001, the college enrollment rate of black females was at 42 percent — an increase of almost 14 percent. Black males, on the other hand, increased their attendance by only seven percent.
Changes in Hispanic college enrollment rates by gender were more dramatic. Research in 1981 found that 31.5 percent of Hispanic men and only 27 percent of Hispanic women participated in higher education.
Twenty years later, the rate of Hispanic men attending college remained the same, while the rate for Hispanic women was 37 percent — a jump of 10 percent.
“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 General Electric Foundation, which sponsored the study. “The bad news is that there are still major disparities in the participation rates.
Harvey stressed the importance of ongoing efforts to encourage minority students to pursue an education upon high school graduation.
“The more (diversity) we have among those who participate in higher education, the more our society will benefit, from both a social and leadership standpoint,” Harvey said.
The Minorities in Higher Education Annual Status Report is considered the nation’s foremost source of information on trends at U.S. colleges and universities. The report uses statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics to review high school graduation and college enrollment rates and degrees awarded.