Historically Black Colleges and Universities were established in the latter half of the 19th century (1856) to provide classical education and teacher training for Black people who were largely excluded from higher learning institutions during the pre-1964 (Civil Rights Act) America. Since then, they’ve played a crucial role in American culture, having produced many prominent graduates, including Martin Luther King Jr., Kamala Harris, and Chadwick Boseman, continuing their legacy as the hub of Black excellence.
However, HBCUs aren’t immune to the broader trend of declining enrollment. In fact, HBCU institutions have experienced an 11% drop in their overall enrollment numbers since 2010, which is consistent across all institutions of higher learning in the United States. But the worrying statistic is the declining enrollment among Black men, which is at an all-time low since the mid-1970s — according to the American Institute for Boys and Men — with a 25% decline at HBCUs and a 22% drop across all institutions of higher learning. These trends are particularly worrisome for HBCUs since Black males make up a large part of their student population.
But the main question here is why is this happening? Why has the enrollment rate for Black men dropped from 38% in 1976 to 25% today? As always, the declining trend can be blamed on systemic challenges, such as financial barriers and societal pressures that disproportionately affect Black men and undermine their confidence in pursuing higher education. And that’s on top of a persistent “belief gap” that remains persistent in the K-12 system, where non-Black teachers are found to have lower expectations for African American students.
Economic challenges remain among the top reasons for the low enrollment rate. The cost of higher education continues to rise; according to Forbes and the National Center for Education Statistics, the average price of tuition, fees, and room and board for an undergraduate degree has increased by 169% over the past 40 years. While those numbers might seem reasonable at first, it’s important to note that they have been adjusted for inflation, thus indicating a massive rise in the actual cost of obtaining a higher education.
Black men are disproportionately affected by these economic challenges, primarily due to economic disparities, higher debt burdens, and lack of financial support from their families due to economic constraints. Historically, Black men have entered college with fewer financial resources and higher levels of unmet financial needs. Sure, HBCUs do offer lower tuition rates, but they weren’t immune to the aforementioned increase in educational prices over the past 40 years, either, which still poses a significant economic challenge for aspiring students.
One might argue that HBCUs offer financial aid packages, but those packages — though still significant — often fall short of covering the full cost of attendance. According to NCES, more than 74% of part-time and 40% of full-time undergraduate students in the US were employed in 2020, and more than 50% of the former and 25% of the latter worked 35 or more hours per week to help manage their expenses, at the potential expense of their academic performance. Black students (both male and female) account for one-third of employed full-time undergraduates.
Educational disparities in K-12 education also play a critical role in deterring Black men from pursuing higher education. Many African Americans attend underfunded schools with limited access to advanced coursework, college counseling, and opportunities for extracurricular work and activities. These inequalities often leave Black high school students under-prepared for college, thus reducing their likelihood of enrollment and the persistence that’s often necessary for completing all the coursework.
To put things into numbers, educational disparities have led to Black students being less college-ready, at least according to UNCF. In fact, 61% of ACT-tested African American students in a high school graduating class failed all four ACT college readiness benchmarks in 2015. Considering that 31% of all students failed the same benchmarks that year, we can easily see that Black students account for nearly 51% of the overall number of failed students.
This can be attributed to the fact that only about 57% of Black students in high schools have access to the full range of math and science courses necessary for college readiness. Additionally, African American students often attend schools located in communities that are affected by economic and social disparities to a greater degree, and this reflects on their school system. These schools are often assigned teachers who are either novices, or are less qualified, or simply lack a financial incentive to offer more than a bare minimum for their students.
And lastly, there’s the “belief gap.” According to the study published by the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, there’s evidence of systemic bias in non-Black teacher expectations for Black students, especially when compared to expectations set by Black teachers. The belief gap often leads to internalization of low expectations, limiting the students’ own aspirations and academic performance, further discouraging Black men from pursuing higher education altogether.
In the end, it’s important to note that a small number of HBCU institutions have actually seen an increase in Black male enrollment, but there’s still no upward trend in average enrollment. Others are actively recruiting more African American men, going as far as addressing affordability issues and forming partnerships with businesses. If something isn’t working, it should be reformed, and targeted interventions in K-12 education, as well as increasing representation of Black male teachers could help HBCUs counter the trend, and continue the legacy of cultivating successful Black Americans.