Hispanic enrollment in North American colleges and universities has increased by 24 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to a report from the Pew Hispanic Center released last week. This increase has made Hispanic students the largest minority group in colleges, surpassing their black counterparts.
The Hispanic population in the commonwealth has grown 91.7 percent since 2000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released in February. Between 1998 and 2008, U. Virginia’s Hispanic undergraduate population rose 128 percent to 4.6 percent of the overall population. Hispanic representation among full-time faculty increased by 50 percent to make up 1.3 percent of those employees.
Richard Fry, senior research associate for the Pew Hispanic Center, composed the report by analyzing data from the census. He focused mainly on college students in the 18 to 24 age group and said, although Hispanic enrollment has increased for both community, two-year and four-year colleges, blacks are still the largest minority in two-year colleges.
Fry attributed the increase to both population growth and rising educational attainment.
“In some ways, it’s not surprising that the number of young Hispanics in college is going up,” Fry said. “After all, the Census Bureau and others tell us Hispanics are a growing population. And they are.”
The percent increase in the greater population of Hispanics, however, was only seven percent, far less than that in higher education. One reason for the discrepancy between population growth rates and enrollment rates is that more Hispanic students are graduating high school, Fry said.
“In 2009, about 70 percent of young Hispanics had finished high school,” he said. “In 2010, 73 percent had finished high school. One year, up three percentage points.”
In addition, Fry said more young people, regardless of racial background, find going to college important.
“More youth, whether they are white, African American or Hispanic, are going to college.” Fry said. “And one reason for that is because college is increasingly valuable. It used to be the case back in the ’70s that if you were a college graduate, you [earned] about 10 percent more than the high-school graduate. Now that earning is about 50 percent. The value of education has increased in the job market.”
Fry also noted the state of the economy, which encourages people to attend college to increase their job skills and become more employable when facing a competitive job market.
“Hopefully sooner or later the youth job market will begin to improve, and there might be a slight drop off in college enrollment,” he said. “Some students, called ‘marginal students,’ are not committed to college. They’d rather be working.”
Although Hispanic enrollment in colleges has increased, the Hispanic graduation rate for college students is significantly low. Fry said about 13 percent of Hispanics aged 25 to 29 who have attended college have bachelor’s degrees. One possible explanation is that many Hispanic students go to community colleges, where bachelor’s degrees are much harder to achieve, regardless of ethnic background.
Differences between various four-year colleges and universities may also affect the graduation rate, Fry added.
“Some are more academically selective than others and have higher graduation rates,” Fry said. “Whites tend to go to the more academically selective schools. So I’m pointing out a couple things: [Hispanic students] disproportionately go to community colleges and schools with lower degree rates.”
Fry also pointed to socioeconomic status as a factor in graduation rates, noting the importance of being able to afford staying in college for the time required to complete a degree.
Marcela Chavan-Matviuk, a board member of the Virginia Latino Higher Education Network, said the average Virginia private institution or state university has a 3 to 4 percent Latino enrollment. The Virginia school with the largest Hispanic enrollment is George Mason University with 5.2 percent in 2008.
“It is extremely important we increase the levels of Hispanic enrollment at our universities,” Chavan-Matviuk said. “Not only including them in systems, but keeping them in the system until they graduate. So it’s a double-edged sword that colleges and universities have to handle now.”
Alexa Proffitt, chair of the Latino Student Alliance at U. Virginia, said she has noticed a difference in the number of Hispanic students in the class of 2012 compared to the class of 2015.
“I think that specifically at U.Va.,” she said, “the fourth-year numbers for Hispanics is very low, under 200. For the first years, it’s 400.”