What is happening to African-American-student enrollment at colleges? The Diversity section of this, our 32nd annual Almanac of Higher Education issue, explores that question. Nearly 365,000 fewer black students enrolled in higher education in 2017 than in 2010. We asked ourselves: At what types of institutions is black enrollment dropping, and where is it growing? How well did those institutions serve their students? And what are colleges doing to ensure that higher education is accessible, even to those who did not attend the most highly regarded high schools and play the right sports, and who were not born into families with the potential to become major donors?
At the same time that enrollment of African-Americans is declining, they are becoming less visible on campuses in other ways. Many are adult students who study exclusively online and may never set foot on campus until graduation day, if then. The data in our Students section reflect how widespread online education has become. Though plenty of students have no experience of it, others have known almost no other way of being in college. Online education is not just the province of the mega-universities — like Southern New Hampshire, Western Governors, and Liberty Universities — but of smaller colleges that see it as a route to expand their reach. These colleges are opening more doors, or, rather, web portals, to higher education to students who feel they can’t afford the financial and time costs of attending a traditional residential institution.
How did those fast-growing colleges get so big, during a time when overall enrollment in colleges began shrinking? Some of them spent large sums on advertising and marketing. Others spent only modest amounts on advertising and still managed, with their more-nuanced approaches, to expand quickly.
As students turn to online education, the nature of instruction, and who does the instruction, is changing. At many colleges, students still have a high chance of encountering and learning from tenured or tenure-track professors but the opportunity is shrinking, and it is far from universal. Adjuncts and other nontenured instructors are often the people students see in their classrooms and online video lectures.
Online education is not the only measure being tried to expand access to a more diverse population of students. Some colleges are reducing their tuition. And many others, including several institutions in Oklahoma, are experimenting with ways to help underprepared students overcome the obstacles that make them stumble along the path to a degree.
Longtime readers may get a feeling as they turn the pages of our Almanac 2019 print issue that they, like Dorothy, have left Kansas and entered Oz. After 31 years of publishing black-and-white tables and charts, the Almanac has embraced color. We hope the splashes of blue, green, and gold will make some of our data easier to grasp and interpret.
For our online presentation, we have broken down data into sections and subsections to help readers find more of the information they want. Knowing that many of our readers are fond of comparing one college with another, we have created a “How Does Your College Compare With Others?” section with more than two dozen interactive tables that allow users to sort on various measures like graduation rates, enrollment growth, and diversity.
Much credit goes to our four designers who created the print issue over the past four months, as well as to our two photo editors, interactive news editor, data editor and reporter, six copy editors, four freelance reporters, web producer, print publication manager, and editorial associate and assistant, all of whom made valuable contributions to this project.
Thanks go as well to the organizations and government agencies that shared their data, and to the institutional researchers at colleges across the country who gathered and reported the figures for their institutions. From the collective efforts of these hundreds of people, we have created this portrait in numbers of the state of higher education today.
The following staff members and affiliates contributed to the reporting, data analysis, copy editing, design, and production of Almanac 2019: Dan Bauman, Tyler Davis, Ki-Jana Deadwyler, Rose Engelland, Kelly Field, Ralph Gioseffi, Janeen Jones, Alison Krug, Sue LaLumia, Heidi Landecker, Erica Lusk, Mitch Gerber, Ralph Gioseffi, Sarah Henderson, Bob McGrath, Carmen Mendoza, Peter Monaghan, Andrew Mytelka, Brian O’Leary, Julia Piper, Don Troop, Scott Seymour, Teghan Simonton, and Megan Zahneis.
Ruth Hammond is editor of the Almanac, as well as the Chronicle List and Bookshelf. Follow her on Twitter at @ruthehammond.
