Objective
The analysis of degrees conferred to students of color in the United
States continues this year with the simple objective of bringing
national attention to those institutions that contribute, in raw
numbers, to the educational attainment of members of ethnic and racial
minorities.
This is the fifth consecutive year that Black Issues In Higher
Education has published these lists, which follow the same basic format
as in prior years. The lists reflect degree production during the
1994-95 academic year, including all associate, baccalaureate, first
professional, master’s, and doctoral degrees that were awarded by
accredited colleges and universities in the nation’s fifty states and
the District of Columbia. The institutions are ranked according to the
total number of degrees awarded to minority students across all
disciplines and in specific disciplines. For reasons of space, only the
associate and baccalaureate lists are in this issue. Graduate and
professional rankings will be carried in the next issue.
Excluded from this analysis are colleges and universities in Puerto
Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and other commonwealths and protectorates,
as well as postsecondary institutions within the fifty states and
Washington, D.C. that are not accredited at the college level by an
agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education.
Data Source
The data for this study come from the United States Department of
Education. It is collected through the Integrated Postsecondary
Education Data System (IPEDS) program completers survey conducted by
the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). The survey
requests data on the number of degrees and other formal awards
conferred in academic, vocational and continuing professional education
programs. Institutions report their data according to the
Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) codes developed by the
National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). CIP codes provide a
common set of categories allowing comparisons across all colleges and
universities.
The astute reader may note that we have skipped a year in this
series. Last year, we published the numbers that derived from the
1992-93 IPEDS completers survey. This year we have moved ahead to the
1994-95 dataset. In addition, we are able to provide preliminary
figures for institutions for which 1995-96 data are currently available.
