That’s the finding from a new report titled “Investing in Student Success: The Return on Investment (ROI) of Minority Serving Institutions” released this month by the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania.
The report builds on the scholarly work presented at a national convening focused on ROI that was held last fall by the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions and the Educational Testing Service.
Using empirical data, the report argues that minority serving institutions—which include Hispanic Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Asian American & Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions—have proved to be a good long-term investment for students.
“The data in this report couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Dr. Marybeth Gasman, director of the Center for Minority Serving Institutions and professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania. “Many people have this false notion that MSIs are lesser institutions. Yet MSIs educate 20 percent of the nation’s college students, and the data in this report show how great of an investment they actually are.”
For example, a study by Dr. Terrell Strayhorn, director of the Center for Higher Education Enterprise and a professor of higher education at The Ohio State University, found that Black students who attended and graduated from an HBCU generally had positive returns, particularly in the areas of occupational status and Black identity. The results were mixed in terms of annual earnings and job satisfaction.
While very little research has focused on ROI for Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), researchers Drs. Stella Flores, Toby Parks and Christopher Ryan sought out to examine, once a college degree was earned, whether wages differed by the type of four-year institution attended by Latinos.
