While campuses are growing more diverse, minorities tend to be concentrated within certain majors rather than integrated across fields of study, according to a report by the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank. It argues that racial and ethnic segregation by major may play a role in students of color ending up in fewer high-paying jobs.
The study parses Urban Institute data from 1,489 four-year institutions – excluding historically Black colleges and tribal colleges – between 2005 to 2015. It compares the percentage of minority students within majors compared to their percentage of overall enrollment, with a focus on how that might impact their career trajectories and who they interact with, at least in their majors.
Research shows Asian students are most likely to be overrepresented within certain majors relative to enrollment, followed by Hispanic and Black students, while White students are integrated across majors.
“The patterns are pretty stark,” said study co-author Dr. Tomás Monarrez, research associate at the Urban Institute. “You would expect more integration perhaps in colleges than we’re actually finding.”
But while Asian students were highly concentrated in STEM fields, Black students’ most common majors were public administration and social services. Black graduates were underrepresented in majors like math, statistics and engineering, with less than 5% of Black graduates earning degrees in these fields.
Meanwhile, universities where Black students were disproportionately relegated to certain majors also graduated lower percentages of Black students into high-paying fields like computer science, engineering, architecture, business and others.
“In general, it seems that when you have a segregated college, your students of color are enrolling in majors that, at the end of the day, are not getting renumerated very well in the labor market, at least compared to other majors,” Monarrez said. “If we’re worried about the growing racial wealth gap, if we’re worried about the really stagnant, large racial income gap, then we should definitely be worried about the segregation inside colleges.”
