Study Names Colleges Graduating the Most Latino Students

By Katherine Leal Unmuth
Latino EdBeat

The nonprofit group Excelencia in Education recently named the top colleges graduating Latinos in 2009-10 in a new report, Finding Your Workforce: The Top 25 Institutions Graduating Latinos.

Colleges and universities in California, Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico showed up the most often on the lists, which broke out the top 25 institutions by certificates and degree level. Almost all of the schools tops in awarding bachelor’s degree are public, and many Hispanics earning certificates are doing so at for-profit schools.

According to the study, Miami Dade College awarded the most associate’s degrees to Latinos (5,893) and Florida International University awarded the most bachelor’s (3,918) and master’s degrees (1,014). ”We’re proud of our accomplishments in graduating Hispanic students ready to make their mark in a global economy,” FIU president Mark Rosenberg told the organization.

El Paso Community College awarded the second highest number of associate’s degrees to Latinos (2,666) and its neighbor the University of Texas at El Paso also was the second highest in awarding bachelor’s degrees (2,382).

At the doctoral level, the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus is at the top with 67 graduates. If you scan down the list, Harvard University places at #18, and awarded 26 doctoral degrees to Latinos, making up just 4 percent of the total awarded.

The study is the first part of a series accompanying the Finding Your Workforce project, which will focus on helping employers and recruiters identify top-producing schools of Latino graduates in certain sectors. ”Corporate leaders have expressed both their desire to hire more Latinos and their frustration at not knowing where to find Latinos with the necessary educational credentials in their sectors,” Excelencia in Education’s president Sarita Brown said. “Therefore, we are using our unique analytical focus to provide practical information to address this need and make the direct connection between Latino college completion and America’s future workforce.”

The data cited in the report came from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), Institutional Characteristics and Completions Survey, 2009-10, from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education.

To learn more, you can read the study here.