The Pursuit of Inclusion: Recent Trends in Minority Enrollments in Higher Education

Abstract

Using "Fall Enrollments" and "The American Freshman" survey data, this article addresses two related questions: How has the ethnic-racial composition of various types of higher educational institutions changed in recent years, and how have chances of attending various types of institutions changed for students from different ethnic-racial backgrounds? Within the higher education system, the signs of stability outweighed the signs of change. The racial composition of the student bodies at 2-year and 4-year institutions was remarkably similar throughout the 1980s. The distribution of students from each minority group among the main divisions of the system also remained largely steady, suggesting that no group "traded down" in the educational hierarchy to cope with rising costs. At the elite Intitutions, Blacks did not lose ground but remained underrepresented; the greater ethnic-racial diversity at these institutions largely reflected an infusion of Asian-American students. In light of these data, explanations of minority enrollments that stress the impact of financial aid or political struggle are open to question.