Dive Brief:
- Highly selective, financially strong colleges and universities have the infrastructure to create good outcomes for under resourced and underrepresented students, but aren't necessarily better than colleges with fewer resources at providing similar metrics.
- Access and affordability for lower income students appears to be the same at elite and lower-resourced institutions: According to University Business, the median debt for a Pell grant recipient at ten of the nation's most elite schools is $19,940, while an average from select small private colleges it’s $21,076.
- The key to reducing economic disparities is to invest in colleges with varying size and mission to accommodate a wide pool of students with varying needs.
Dive Insight:
Social mobility will be a key metric on post-graduate outcomes over the next few years, as poverty and debt increase in communities nationwide. Many of the existing disparities exist among ethnic and racial minorities, and so an important consideration for many college executives will be how to match educational service delivery with cultural support and inclusion.
This is the magic touch present at tribal colleges, historically black colleges and Hispanic-serving institutions — the notion that education can be both a professional and personal development tool in contexts of racial empowerment and awareness.
These are the ideas the promote professional capability and a deeper understanding of what that capability means in transforming stereotypes and breaking barriers for other minorities seeking similar opportunities through education.