Universities and colleges have historically not done well at enrolling Hispanic students, who lag behind their white peers in college attendance. Now their own success may largely depend on it.
“The demographics in our country are changing, and higher education has to adapt,” said Glena Temple, Dominican’s president.
Or, as Quintero put it, smiling: “Now they need us.”
A growing pool of potential students
Nearly 1 in 3 students in grades K through 12 is Hispanic, the National Center for Education Statistics reports. That’s up from fewer than 1 in 4 a decade ago. The proportion of students in public schools who are Hispanic is even higher in some states, including California, Texas and Florida.
By 2041, the numbers of white, Black and Asian high school graduates are projected to fall (by 26 percent, 22 percent and 10 percent, respectively), according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, which tracks this. Over that same period, the number of Hispanic graduates is expected to grow by 16 percent.
That makes these young people — often the children or grandchildren of immigrants, or immigrants themselves — newly important to colleges and universities.
Yet at a time when higher education needs these students, the proportion of Hispanic high school graduates heading directly to college is lower than for white students, and falling. The number dropped from 70 percent to 58 percent from 2012 to 2022, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Hispanic students who do enroll in college also drop out at higher rates.
In the past, colleges and universities “could hit their [enrollment] numbers without engaging this population,” said Deborah Santiago, chief executive officer of the Latino advocacy organization Excelencia in Education. “That’s no longer the case.”
A possible solution to looming worker shortfalls
A good example of the potential for recruiting Hispanic students is in the Kansas City metropolitan area, which includes communities in Missouri and Kansas. The largest school district in the region, Kansas City, Mo., is now 58 percent Hispanic.
Getting at least some of these students to enroll in college “is what we need to be preparing for as higher education institutions, and to meet the needs of our communities,” said Greg Mosier, president of Kansas City Kansas Community College, which has begun advertising in Spanish-language newspapers and on Spanish-language radio.
Responding to these changing demographics is about more than colleges filling seats, experts say. It will have an impact on the national economy.
About 43 percent of all jobs will require at least bachelor’s degrees by 2031, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce estimates. The projected decline in the number of college graduates over that period, researchers say, could create serious labor shortages.
