Changing Demographics in Higher Education

Abstract

Changing demographics have transformed colleges from “elite” institutions, characterized by white, higher income, male populations, into schools with student bodies that are majority women and increasingly composed of minority, first-generation, and nontraditional students. A college degree is widely considered a minimum requirement for employment, higher earnings, and promotion, and students have a vested interest in attaining one. The demographic shift gave rise to new departments and fields of study, challenging traditional pedagogies, worldviews, and canons. Broader access to higher learning also introduced curriculum to remediate gaps in knowledge and skills created by inadequate preparation in secondary school.

Overview

The changing demographics in higher education has been an incremental process. Until the middle of the twentieth century, few families sent their children to college, as most institutions of higher learning were private, expensive, and exclusive. Though a handful of public colleges existed as far back as the eighteenth century, it was not until the late nineteenth century that states began creating public colleges for their citizens. As public colleges and universities were founded, higher education was expanded to the middle class. The assumption was that students would graduate from high school and immediately begin college, graduating in four years. The delay in joining the workforce was itself a great obstacle to most children of middle- and lower-income families. During World War II, Congress enacted the G.I. Bill, and the federal government began funding higher education for returning veterans. Consequently, student populations became older and more economically diverse, and the number of students working full- or part-time continued to increase. However, student bodies were still predominately white and male. In 1963, President John Kennedy introduced the concept of affirmative action as a means of closing the divide between white and black Americans and dealing with ongoing patterns of discrimination. From the first, affirmative action was considered controversial—“reverse discrimination,” according to critics—and some experts insist that it helped women more than minorities. Since the Reagan era, affirmative action has been slowly eroded by the courts. However, the Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) upheld affirmative action admission programs as long as they are narrowly tailored.

Over the years, affirmative action has promoted student body diversity by expanding educational opportunities, using race, gender, disability, and veteran status as factors in admission. In 1976, minorities comprised only 16 percent of college students. By 1999, students of color made up 28 percent of all college students. The number of Asians in American colleges rose by 360 percent, the number of Hispanics by 243 percent, and the number of African Americans by 59 percent (Anderson, 2003). While the number of Native Americans on college campuses rose by 360 percent, the total number is still relatively small as compared with other minorities. The states with the largest number of minority college students are Nevada and California. Minority population growth in states such as Hawaii, Texas, New Jersey, Arizona, Washington, Florida, Maryland, and Georgia have also led to increases in the number of minority students enrolled in colleges and universities.

Between 1970 and 2012, the percentage of white students among first-year college students dropped from 90 percent to 73 percent. In 2001, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that 11.5 percent of entering students were African American, and 12.4 percent were Latinx despite the fact that African American and Latinx students made up 12.6 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively, of the total population, according to the 2000 census. The National Center for Educational Statistics reported that less than one in five faculty members in the United States was a person of color in 2008—that is, 5.6 percent African American/Black, 3.5 percent Hispanic/Latino, 9.1 percent Asian American, and 1.4 percent American Indian—though those groups comprise one-third of the total population. Between 1979 and 1982, 54 percent of students who completed college were from affluent homes as compared to only 9 percent of students from low-income homes. Data from a survey of American households in 2008 revealed that 40.4 percent of the population earned less than $50,000 annually, and studies show that students who are economically disadvantaged are 25 percent less likely than others to attend college. They are also more likely than others not to complete a degree.

During the colonial period, American higher education was modeled after the British system. Over time, American institutions began to establish their own identities, but educators continued to argue about what constituted an ideal institution of higher learning. In 1937 at the University of Chicago, Robert Hutchins maintained that colleges and universities should be places where the liberal arts were taught to students who were there only to amass knowledge. By 1968, the purpose of higher education had been transformed, and economist Thorstein Veblen and educator Abraham Flexner began calling for a university that would focus on both research and teaching. They suggested that there was no need for credits or tests, and they recommended that administrators and professional schools be eliminated.

Arthur Levine, in “The Remaking of the American University” (2001) identified five forces shaping American higher education at the beginning of the twentieth century. The first was the shift from an industrial to an information-based economy. In 1991, 65 percent of available jobs required a high school diploma or its equivalent. By 2001, 85 percent of employers were requiring a high school diploma. Among the 25 fastest-growing American companies, 18 required a college degree as a term of employment. The second force shaping education was the change in the demographic makeup of college students. Levine credits enrollment growth between 1980 and 1990 to increased numbers of students 25 years old and over, women, working adults, and part-time attendees. These “nontraditional” students required that attending college be convenient, that colleges provide them with necessary services, that they receive a high-quality education, and that college be affordable. Older students were more reluctant to pay for services or programs that were irrelevant to their student lives. Levine also identified new technologies such as computers as forces of change. A fourth force was the privatization of higher education through company-established universities and collectives such as Western Governor’s University, founded in 1997, in which 17 states and 14 businesses, including IBM, AT&T, and Microsoft, have formed a partnership to provide an alternative path to higher education. The final force identified by Levine was the convergence of knowledge, which refers to educational opportunities provided outside the college classroom. Centers of knowledge have expanded to include broadcast television, cable television, publishing companies, symphony orchestras, public libraries, and museums.

The population of the United States has become an increasingly diverse, and that diversity is reflected in school populations at all levels. Between 1990 and 2010, the percentage of white K-12 students fell from 67 to 54 percent at the same time the non-white population rose from 32 to 48 percent. Some 23 percent of K-12 students had at least one parent who was born outside the United States, and one in five lived in homes where at least one parent spoke another language. In higher education in 2015, 36 percent of the student population was composed of African Americans, Hispanics, Asian/Pacific Islanders or American Indian/Alaskan Natives (Baumgartner, Bay, Lopez-Reyna, Snowden & Maiorano, 2015). While student populations are increasingly diverse, 85 percent of all teachers are white. At the K-12 level, white teachers may predominate, even in schools where minorities make up the bulk of the student body.

Further Insights

In 1964, the first baby boomers reached college age. They were the first generation to have grown up under the influence of postwar changes that had transformed American society, and they brought diversity of opinions and attitudes to college campuses. Since 1984, females have made up the majority of college students. Women are more likely than men to complete degrees in less than six years, and they consistently earn better grades. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the first “echo” boomers entered college, resulting in a college population that had grown up during the technological age, which had given them worldviews shaped by access to computers, the Internet, smartphones, and a plethora of entertainment choices. These changes had introduced this cohort to a variety of cultures. Student bodies also became more geographically diverse, with large numbers of students attending college in other states and countries.

Nontraditional students add a good deal of diversity to college campuses because of their age and life experiences, but they have been frequently misunderstood because they split their time between school and work and have little time for traditional school life or extracurricular activities. Nontraditional students often drop out of school, leading to the stereotype of nontraditional students as “lazy,” “bored,” “procrastinating,” and “stupid” (Letizia, 2013). In 2009, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Public Agenda, a nonprofit research organization, published With Their Whole Lives ahead of Them: Myths and Realities about Why So Many Students Fail to Finish College (Johnson, Rochkind, Ott & DuPont, 2009), which profiled nontraditional students and explained demographic changes in college campuses over time. They found that part-time students comprised only one-sixth of undergraduates in 1967, but that number had grown to more than one-third by 2009. On two-year campuses, more than half of all students attended part-time. The average age of these nontraditional students was 25. In 2000, as the cost of college tuition began to climb, median household income for Americans in the lowest fifth of the population dropped by $1,000 a month, making it considerably more difficult for students in low-income households to attend college without working. The average student was taking three years to finish a two-year program and six years to finish a four-year program. Many experts incorrectly saw these statistics as evidence of a failure of the educational system and insisted that it threatened America’s global competitiveness and contributed to economic insecurity and inequality.

In a survey of six hundred adults between the ages of twenty-two and thirty who had attended but never finished college, Johnson et al. (2009) found that 45 percent had worked at least 20 hours a week while attending college. Of those who attended community colleges, six out of ten had worked more than 20 hours, and around 26 percent had worked more than 35 hours. Twenty-three percent had dependent children. The chief reason for dropping out of college was being stressed out over the double load of work and school. Almost a third had dropped out for financial reasons. Other reasons included needing a break (21%), irrelevant classes (16%), and lack of family time (16%). Most (65%) thought “a lot” about going back to college.

In the twenty-first century a thriving industry in for-profit “degree mills” sprang up in response to globalization and technological advances, particularly the Internet. While some online schools made fraudulent claims in order to tap into monies made available through financial aid packages, legitimate institutions were founded, and established colleges were able to expand offerings to students for whom traditional college courses were not practical.

Cross-national college campuses have been highly praised by countries that are unable to meet the educational needs of their populations; they have also slowed down the brain-drain of the brightest young people to other countries. Examples of countries that have established branches in other countries include Johns Hopkins University and the University of Chicago, which have branches in Singapore, and the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus. The University of Phoenix, with its broad range of programs, is the largest private university in the United States, and British Open University has a presence in more than one hundred countries.

Leila Youssef (2014) identifies two other types of cross-border paths to obtaining a college education. The first path is the traditional one in which a student in one country decides to attend college in another country because it offers better career opportunities, may increase social standing, or because students want to experience another culture. Between 1980 and 2011, the number of students enrolled in classes outside their home countries increased fivefold, climbing to 4.3 million. The majority of those students come from China, India, and South Korea. The most popular destinations are Australia, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Austria. The majority of those students never return to their home countries. The second path to a college degree may consist of distance learning, e-learning, or a combination of the two; and most colleges and universities now offer online classes.

By the 2010s, Americans were demanding that college campuses reflect trends identified in the general population, and many were calling for a greater emphasis on social justice, equality, and improved educational access (Haring-Smith, 2012). The Association of American Colleges and Universities issued a statement, insisting that it was imperative for institutions of higher learning to be diverse and inclusive. Schools have tried a number of innovative methods for attracting and retaining minority students and for creating programs to serve their needs. Some have established Affirmative Action or Multicultural Committees. Others have set up entire offices and/or hired administrators charged with promoting diversity.

Issues

The move toward multiculturalism on college campuses began in 1963 with Kennedy’s commitment to affirmative action, but critics argue that the commitment has not led to steady growth of diversity. The common practice has been to add diversity by focusing on recruiting minority faculty, students, and staff. Minority faculty members are most often found in undergraduate teaching in the fields of social science, the humanities, and education. Staff members are most likely to be hired for student services or as assistants or associates. The majority of minority students attend two-year campuses, and the number attending large research institutions has remained small. Minorities have consistently been less likely than white students to graduate, and few attend graduate school. This is partly because large numbers of African American students choose to attend historically black colleges and universities like Howard in Washington, D.C., and Morehouse and Spelman in Atlanta. Minority students are also likely to attend public institutions like the City University of New York and California State University.

In the 1990s when minority high school graduation rates and SAT/ACT scores were climbing, the number of minorities attending college was dropping. In 1998, Leonard A. Valverde and Louis A. Castenell, Jr., identified five stages by which college and university campuses become more diverse: On a “monocultural campus” minorities have little or no presence; an “ethnocentric campus” is predominantly white and only a token minority presence is discernible; the “accommodating campus” has implemented policy and program changes attributable to the attendance of women and minority students; the “transitional campus” exhibits limited pluralism; and the “transformed campus” is one in which full multiculturalism has occurred. Most scholars agree that the majority of colleges never advance past the first stage, and only a minimal number has reached the fifth stage.

Dana Baumgartner et al. (2015) suggest that white teachers do not always understand the cultures of the minorities they teach. This disconnect may be partly responsible for the fact that fewer minorities attend and complete college. A study of midwestern college students revealed that minorities on college campuses believe that they have to work harder than other students to succeed, and they feel that they under constant observation by others. African American students report feeling either hyper-visible or invisible; Asian students contend that their voices have been silenced on the subject of discrimination; and Latinx students express the feeling that they are isolated and overworked (Affirmative Action and Diversity, 2007.) Studies of minority faculty reveal that feel they are stereotyped as being non-competitive and less qualified.

Terms & Concepts

Affirmative Action: A strategy that seeks to redress historical patterns of discrimination against a particular group such as African Americans and other minorities or women by such measures as active recruitment and special consideration in areas such as college admissions, jobs, and promotions.

Baby Boomers: Americans born between 1946 and 1964 during a postwar population explosion that led to 76 million births. Baby Boomers are considered a distinct cohort by researchers because of shared characteristics, being the first Americans to grow up watching television, and their impact on all aspects of society.

Brain Drain: Refers to the departure of a country’s professionals and students in fields such as medicine and engineering to another country. While many countries, particularly those that are not fully developed, experience brain drain, it may also occur in response to political and economic events such as wars, economic downturns, government turnovers, human rights crises, or to devastating events such as famine and floods.

Degree Mills: Also known as diploma mills; inferior and often fraudulent institutions that extract large sums of money from students desiring to obtain college degrees. Such institutions frequently claim to offer college degrees for life experiences. Instructors are generally not adequately trained in the subjects they teach.

Distance Learning: Refers to nontraditional methods of learning that do not require students to attend bodily in classrooms on a regular schedule. Video and interactive technologies have led to e-learning opportunities in which students watch lectures, participate in discussion, turn in homework, and communicate with teachers.

Echo Boomers: Children born to Baby Boomers in the 1980s and 1990s during a population boom that produced 80,000,000 children. Like their parents, echo boomers are a unique cohort, and they are the first generation to grow up using new technologies like computers and cell phones.

G. I. Bill: The Servicemen’s Readjustment Bill of 1944, which was passed to provide veterans returning from service in World War II with financial assistance to attend college or a trade school. It expired in 1956, but the Veteran’s Administration insured education loans for veterans until 1962. In 1966, the Readjustments Benefits Act was passed, providing educational benefits for all veterans.

Bibliography

Affirmative Action and Diversity: Partners and Protagonists. (2007). ASHE Higher Education Report, 33(1), 27–41. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=25793678&site=ehost-live

Anderson, E. L. (2003). Changing U.S. demographics and American higher education. New Directions for Higher Education, 2003(121), 3–13. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=9461032&site=ehost-live

Baumgartner, D., Bay, M., Lopez-Reyna, N. A., Snowden, P. A., & Maiorano, M. J. (2015). Culturally responsive practice for teacher educators: Eight recommendations. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, 15(1), 44–58. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=118016297&site=ehost-live

Haring-Smith, T. (2012). Broadening our definition of diversity. Liberal Education, 98(2), 6–13.

Johnson, J., Rochkind, J., Ott, A., & DuPont, S. (2009). With their whole lives ahead of them: Myths and realities about why so many students fail to finish college. Washington, D.C.: Public Agenda.

Letizia, A. (2013). Strategic blunder? Strategic planning for changing demographics in higher education. Educational Planning, 21(1), 18–31. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=94596943&site=ehost-live

Levine, A. (2001). The remaking of the American University. Innovative Higher Education, 25(4), 253–268.

Taylor, O., Apprey, C. B., Hill, G., McGrann, L., & Wang, J. (2010). Diversifying the faculty. Peer Review, 12(3), 15–18.

Youssef, L. (2014). Globalisation and higher education: From within-border to cross-border. Open Learning, 29(2), 100–115. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=99363116&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Grawe, N. D. (2018). Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Machovec, G. (2017). Trends in Higher Education and Library Consortia. Journal of Library Administration, 57(5), 577–584. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=124127930&site=ehost-live

Marin, P., & Pereschica, P. (2017). Becoming an Hispanic-serving research institution: Involving graduate students in organizational change. AMAE Journal, 11(3), 154–175. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=133658802&site=ehost-live