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Top 100: Hispanic Degree Earners By the Numbers
top 100!

May 2, 2011

By Mary Ann Cooper

The Hispanic Outlook has compiled the Top 100 institutions for Hispanics based on degrees awarded. This information is made available by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Florida schools were dominant, with Florida International University (FIU) topping the list of Top 100 schools conferring both bachelor's and master's degrees. FIU also scored the highest percentage of Ph.D. recipients. Nova Southeastern led the list of schools conferring the most doctoral degrees. However, Texas schools had the highest percentage of degree earners in the areas of bachelor's and master's degrees.

Here Are Highlights from Each Grouping
The latest figures reveal that Florida International University awarded the most bachelor's degrees to Hispanics -- 3,918 in 2010. This represents 63 percent of the 6,266 degrees granted by FIU. In 2009, FIU awarded 3,555, which also represented 63 percent. FIU leads the list of top schools for master's degrees as well, 1,014 degrees conferred on Hispanics, representing 43 percent of the master's degrees it granted. For the third year in a row, Nova Southeastern University earned the top spot on the Top 100 list for doctoral degrees, with 266 degrees conferred on Hispanic students out of the 1,806 conferred there, representing 15 percent of Nova's Ph.D.s granted.

More Hispanic females than Hispanic males obtained master's degrees in 2009. In fact, Hispanic females outnumbered Hispanic males achieving master's degrees in more than 90 percent of the schools on our Top 100 list. Latinas were shown to earn more bachelor's degrees than Latinos too. More than 95 percent of the Top 100 schools for bachelor's to Latinos had more Latina than Latino recipients.

Four schools stand out for their high percentage of Hispanic degree earners. Two are part of the University of Texas system. As for bachelor's degrees, among the top 10 schools, the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) and the University of Texas-Brownsville had large percentages of Hispanics obtaining bachelor's -- 90 percent for each school in 2010 -- but another Texas school, Texas A&M International University, had the highest percentage of Hispanic bachelor's degree recipients, 93 percent. The University of Texas-Pan American had the highest percentage of Hispanic master's degree earners at 78 percent. Florida International University had the greatest percentage of Hispanic doctoral degree conferees at 38 percent.

Part of the reason for UT's success in recruiting and graduating more Hispanics are the programs the school conducts to attract and prepare graduate students. For instance, at its annual grad fair, the University of Texas-Pan American gathers all of its graduate programs under one roof to offer a one-stop shop to learn about the many master's, doctoral and graduate certificate programs it offers. "At the fair, prospective students can not only learn about more than 60 graduate programs UTPA offers to further their education but also about a number of graduate certificate programs the university offers for working professionals seeking to gain professional development and added expertise in their field," said Denisse Cantu, graduate student recruiter.

UT has a diverse faculty in terms of ethnicity and race. More than half of UT-Pan American faculty in the Ph.D. program in business administration are of color. Whites make up 26 percent of the faculty, another 26 percent are Hispanics, 26 percent are Asian-American, and 5 percent are Black. International instructors make up 5 percent of the faculty at UT-Pan American. In the Doctor of Education program, Hispanic faculty make up 43 percent of Ph.D. recipients, while Whites are 36 percent of the faculty in that program.

UT-Brownsville's high percentage of Hispanics earning master's degrees, 76 percent, might be due in part to its special Graduate Tuition Incentive Scholarship. The school offers to provide tuition support for graduate students pursuing their first master's degree. Students who are residents of Texas with satisfactory GRE scores and an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or better, or any graduate student who has completed 12 semester credit hours with a graduate GPA of 3.0 or better, are eligible to apply. The scholarship is a one-course-per-semester award of tuition for up to six courses or 18 semester credit hours of a graduate degree.

In the area of bachelor's degrees granted by academic program, California schools scored a perfect ten in Hispanic studies. All 10 schools in that category are California schools. The University of California (UC) system locked in the first five schools in Hispanic studies with UC-Santa Cruz ranked No. 1 and San Francisco University, UC-Irvine, California State University-Northridge, San Diego State University and Cal State Los Angeles ranked Nos. 6 through 10, respectively. Texas, on the other hand, missed a clean sweep of bachelor's degree recipients for the multi/ interdisciplinary academic program when Arizona State University ranked ninth on that top 10 list. Five of the nine Texas schools in that category are from the University of Texas system.

A final note on the compilation of the lists: data are derived from various lists compiled by NCES and its Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). NCES recently made the 2010 degree recipient figures available, rather than release this information every two years, as originally scheduled. Also, NCES has created a new data-gathering system. Under the new system, not all schools are on every data list. For instance, there are now not one but three doctoral degree categories, including one for professional practice only. Schools have been given two years to comply with the new system. The Hispanic Outlook has combined available data from all NCES lists to try to give fair representation to all institutions during this transition.

Top 10 Four-Year Schools Awarding the Most Associate Degrees to Hispanics

This year, HO has singled out 10 outstanding schools that have flourished in the community college ranks for years awarding the most associate degrees to Hispanics but might have been overlooked as they establish themselves as pioneering colleges -- now designated as class 1 (four-year colleges) instead of class 2 (community colleges) schools by NCES' IPEDS ranking system -- also awarding more and more bachelor's degrees. As a school such as the No. 1-ranked school, Miami Dade College, continues to make inroads in its awarding of bachelor's degrees to Hispanics, special note must be made of the great number of associate degrees it continues to confer on its Hispanic students. The evolution of these community-serving pioneering schools was profiled nationally in a May 2009 New York Times article, "Community Colleges Challenge Hierarchy with 4-Year Degrees."

The article explains the change that has taken place that has "blurred the line" between community colleges and four-year colleges as a result of new rules enacted by a number of states that authorize community colleges to offer bachelor's degrees as well as associate degrees. As of 2009, Florida had the most community colleges authorized to offer bachelor's degrees. As of that year, 14 were permitted to do so, and 12 had already put such programs into place in fields such as fire safety management and veterinary technology. In the case of Miami Dade College, bachelor's degrees were instituted there initially in the areas of nursing, teaching and public safety management. The idea behind these choices was best expressed by Miami Dade's president, Eduardo J. Padrón, who explained that it was part of his school's mission to serve the greater Miami community and told the Times, "We supply the area's nurses and the teachers, and we respond quickly to new work force needs in our community, training people for real jobs. You won't see us starting a B.A. in sociology. We're offering degrees in things the universities don't want to do."

For those who might be concerned that a bachelor's degree issued from a college that has a longstanding reputation for conferring associate degrees on its students might be a bachelor's "lite" degree, Padrón and others insist that their bachelor's programs have the same level of general education courses required as traditional four-year schools offer for the same or similar degrees. The difference, Padrón told the Times, is, "We have an open-door policy, and we serve 62 percent of Miami-Dade district graduates who go to college [referring to the local public school system]. Eighty percent of our students work, and 58 percent of them come from low-income families. Ours is a mission of rescue. The universities that handpick their students based on SATs and grades get three times the funding we do. We are the underfunded overachiever." As of 2009, Miami Dade College had more than 1,000 students enrolled in baccalaureate programs. The average age is 33, three-quarters are women, and slightly more than half are Hispanic.

The idea of community colleges offering targeted bachelor's degrees -- many aimed at specific career training -- is spreading across the nation. More than 17 states, including Nevada, Texas and Washington, permit their community colleges to award associate and bachelor's degrees. As a result of these statewide actions, some community colleges have transformed themselves into traditional four-year institutions. This is not a radical or new phenomena in higher education, however. Christopher J. Lucas, an education professor at the University of Arkansas, told the Times that although he had some concern about community colleges losing their identity, it seemed to him to be something like the natural transition schools made in the 19th and early 20th century. "From the 1840s to the 1940s, we had the sequence where normal schools, founded to train teachers, became teachers' colleges, then abandoned that role to become colleges, and then the ball would keep rolling and they would become universities." This pattern was prevalent in states like New Jersey where a school like William Paterson University started as Paterson Normal School, a teacher training school, then became Paterson State College and, finally, William Paterson University.

But schools like Miami Dade specifically self-identify as a "community college" that offers bachelor's degrees as well as associate degrees. They have no plans, says Padrón, of changing the way they view themselves. That brings us to the very reason why we are spotlighting the following 10 schools and offering an explanation for their special ranking. While Miami Dade and schools like it take great pride in their associate degrees numbers -- especially when it comes to their Hispanic graduates -- they are no longer viewed as a community college in the eyes of NCES' IPEDS survey rankings. Once schools like Miami Dade begin issuing bachelor's degrees, their designation is changed from a class 2 school (two-year community college) to a class 1 school (four-year college or university). As such, schools like Miami Dade aren't recognized for their outstanding numbers of associate degrees awarded to Hispanics. And they do not appear on lists of top four-year schools awarding the most bachelor's degrees. HO has created this list of the Top 10 schools awarding the most associate degrees, bachelor's degrees and certificates (combined) to Hispanic students to applaud their efforts. As these schools boldly go where few community colleges have yet to venture, HO congratulates them on their diverse students and programs.

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