African American Baccalaureates Surge by 30% From 1991 to 1995

Florida A&M Moves to The Top of the List With Annual Increase of 27%

Almost 20,000 more African Americans received baccalaureate degrees in 1995 compared to 1991. This represents a 30.2 percent increase in the number of African American college graduates, from 64,556 in 1991 to 84,108 in 1995.

"That's good news," said Dr. Reginald Wilson, director of the minority office for the American Council on Education, about the higher numbers of African American baccalaureates.

Dr. Michael Nettles, author of The African American Education Data Book published by The College Fund/UNCF, agreed, saying, "That's phenomenal growth. African American progress in higher education is steady. The outlook is bright."

These numbers are the findings of Black Issues In Higher Education's sixth annual "Top 100" rankings in which colleges are ranked according to the number of degrees they confer on African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans (see pg. 44).

According to Wilson, African American women have been driving the increase.

"For African American men, there has been an incremental increase of 2,000 [new baccalaureates] a year, but African American women have gained by 4,000 a year," said Wilson.

During the same period of time, the number of whites receiving baccalaureate degrees declined slightly, meaning that African Americans represent a larger percentage of the college-going population.

About 28.2 percent of the new graduates attended historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), a very slight increase over the 27.8 percent who graduated from HBCUs in 1991.

The figures contained several surprises - from the sheer numbers of African American baccalaureates to the fact that Howard University is no longer the top producer of African American baccalaureates. In 1995, that honor went to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, a historically Black university in Tallahassee, Florida.