Minority enrollment and graduation rates continue to increase at Connecticut colleges and universities, but Hispanic students remain underrepresented compared to their population statewide.

      Hispanics receive less than 5 percent of the undergraduate degrees awarded at Connecticut’s four-year universities, but comprise almost 10 percent of the state’s population, according to a report issued last week by the state Department of Higher Education.

      The disparity worries education officials because the state’s Hispanic population is soaring and, in the long run, Connecticut’s professional work force will not reflect the state’s demographics unless the trend is reversed.

      The report now heads to Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the General Assembly. It will be accompanied by a request from the department’s board of governors to double the state’s $2.7 million annual allocation for programs that help prepare minorities for college.

      A separate report released by the Department of Higher Education also shows a growing gap between male and female college students. Women now comprise almost 60 percent of the state’s college students, both because they are enrolling in greater numbers and, at the same time, fewer men are enrolling.

      Questions of how to increase minority enrollment, and how to increase enrollment among minority and non-minority males, both have raised concerns about how to better prepare students for higher education.

      Arthur Poole, director of the Higher Education Department’s office of educational opportunity, says Black and Hispanic students are disproportionately heading to two-year programs instead of four-year universities.