The American Council on Education (ACE) came out with a supplemental report expanding on its 2019 Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education project, a data-driven deep dive into racial disparities in colleges and universities.
The report examines over 150 different indicators, drawing on data from 16 principle sources, including the ACT, the SAT, the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) and others. It offers further in-depth research on key topics from last year’s report, like pre-college academic experiences, faculty and staff, graduate and professional education, postsecondary career and technical education, tribal colleges and undergraduate debt.
“We want this report to get in the hands of administrators, practitioners, faculty at colleges and universities, if to do nothing else, to spark their interest in asking the question, what does this look like on my campus?” said Dr. Jonathan Turk, ACE’s director of research. “What does student body diversity look like on my campus? What is the relationship between the racial and ethnic makeup of my student body to my faculty? What does graduation and success look like for my students by race and ethnicity and by gender on my campus?”
Nationally, the report paints a “fairly stark picture” of an increasingly diverse student body held back by deep racial inequities.
One concerning trend was that, while most students take out loans to pay for college, Black students borrowed more and at higher rates. In 2015–16, about 86% of Black students needed to take out a loan, versus about 69% of all students who earned bachelor’s degrees. They also borrowed roughly $4,300 more than their peers.
And that debt sticks around. Research on students who first enrolled in 2003, shows that 12 years later, on average, bachelor’s degree earners still owed about 60% of their student debt. For Latinx and Black borrowers, those averages were even higher, about 70% and 105%, respectively.
“Just think about what level of systems failure has to occur, for after 12 years, to owe more than what they actually originally borrowed,” Turk said. “Because that’s the case for completers. We’re even talking about folks who have earned their degrees … It’s important to us that policymakers are aware of numbers like that.”
