Counting Without Credit: How Dual-Degree Programs Erase HBCUs’ Impact on Black Engineering Success

Dr. Christopher C. JettThe data on where Black engineers graduate from tells a misleading story. Institutions like Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of California (UC), Berkeley often appear near the top of national lists as “producers” of Black engineering PhDs. Yet when you look at where these same students actually earn their bachelor’s degrees, those institutions are largely absent. Instead, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)—such as North Carolina Agricultural and Technical (A&T) State University, Morgan State University, and Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University—dominate the list of top producers of Black engineering bachelor’s degrees. 

What the statistics obscure is that many of the Black engineers credited to elite, predominantly white research institutions began their academic journeys at HBCUs. What is also hidden is that some Black engineers began their collegiate journeys in dual-degree programs. In these “3 + 2” or “dual-degree” pathways, students spend three years at an HBCU completing foundational science or math coursework before transferring to a partner institution. Likely a predominantly white, research-intensive university, where they must complete two more years of engineering training. They walk away with two degrees, but only one institution gets counted as the “producer” of the engineering graduate. And it’s rarely the HBCU.

Devin WhiteThis gap between where Black engineers are developed and where they are counted reveals a deeper pattern of institutional erasure.

The Hidden HBCU Pipeline

Dr. Christopher Jett’s new study, "Expanding Conceptualizations of Engineering Persistence", offers a rare window into the lived experiences of four Black men in dual-degree engineering programs. His findings are both inspiring and unsettling. Two students began at HBCUs, where they leveraged peer networks, mentorship from Black professors, and organizations like the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) to survive and thrive in environments that were often isolating.

Yet, as Jett notes, these HBCU-trained students are quietly sustaining the engineering enterprise at partner institutions that later claim the accolades. The same institutions that welcome them as transfers are credited nationally as the baccalaureate-origin institutions of record when these students go on to pursue PhDs or careers in engineering. HBCUs, which ignited and affirmed their early STEM interests, built their academic foundations, and nurtured their sense of belonging, are effectively written out of the data narrative.

Dr. Ebony McGeeGeorgia Tech Gets Credit—But North Carolina A&T Built the Pipeline