May 31, 2018
Number of Hispanic-Serving Institutions in U.S. increases to 492
The 2016-17 academic year saw an additional 20 institutions become Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) with concentrated growth in the number of Hispanics attending college. HSIs are defined in federal legislation as non-profit colleges or universities with 25% or more full-time-equivalent Hispanic undergraduate enrollment.
2016-17 enrollment data shows that 14% of all institutions of higher education (492 HSIs) enrolled 65% of all Hispanic undergraduates. Additionally, the number of Emerging HSIs, or colleges approaching the 25 percent Latino student enrollment threshold, also shows an upward trajectory from 323 to 333.
Some important facts about HSIs to note:
• HSIs enroll nearly two-thirds of all Hispanic undergraduates.
• When you put together the student population at all HSIs, 45 percent of students are Latino (but 46.3% of FTE undergraduates).
• Many HSIs have relatively low enrollment, with 159 HSIs enrolling 2,000 or fewer total full-time-equivalent undergraduate students.
• Almost half (48 percent) of HSIs are community colleges, and 66 percent are public institutions.
• Of the 492 HSIs in 2016, 215 (43.7%) were public two-year institutions, 120 public four-year institutions (24.4%), 135 private four year institutions (27.4%), and 22 private two year institutions (4.5%).
• A majority of HSIs are concentrated geographically, with the following number of institutions in California (163), Texas (90), Puerto Rico (63), New York (26), Florida (25), Illinois (24) and New Mexico (23).
Source: 2016-17 IPEDS data using Title IV eligible, 2 year & 4 year, Public and Private, non-profit institutions.