Enrollment of graduate students from underrepresented groups increased significantly during the 2003-2004 academic year, according to a national report by the Council of Graduate Schools released Monday.
The report showed a significant increase in enrollment of African-American students in biological science programs and business programs, 16 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Native Americans increased enrollment by 11 percent in graduate business programs as well as 8 percent in the biological sciences. Hispanic and Latino Americans saw a significant increase in several fields, including 17 percent in education, 19 percent in physical sciences, 13 percent in engineering, and 26 percent in public administration.
Enrollment of Asian-American students increased in several fields, including 8 percent in education, 15 percent in engineering and 9 percent in public administration.
The increase in overall enrollment may be due to the size of the base enrollment, CGS Public Affairs Manager Stuart Heiser said.
"Especially for minority students, the base numbers are, unfortunately, so small that even small increases can reflect in large percentages," Heiser said.
This is reflected in the enrollment of underrepresented groups in the Darden School at the University. Although the Darden School has seen significant increases in the percentage of enrollment of minority students, the numbers remain small, according to statistics from the University Office of Institutional Assessment and Studies.
In 2002, annual enrollment of African-Americans and Latinos was about eight students from each group per year, Darden Associate Director of Admissions Barbara Draper said. According to IAS, in 2002, a total of 28 African-American students and 17 Latino students were enrolled in the Darden School.
Although there was a significant increase in the national percentage of Native Americans enrolled in business programs, Draper said the Darden School has not seen a significant increase in individual enrollment of Native-American students.
"The best year we had, we had two in one class, maybe three," she said. "We have about one in the program every other year."
The Darden School has created several outreach programs that includes direct access programs and cultural programming at the University as well as working in conjunction with other undergraduate institutions, especially targeting historically black colleges and universities and Hispanic serving institutions.
The report was based on a survey conducted in conjunction with the Graduate Records Examinations Board, which included responses from 716 of the 1,700 institutions that offer advanced degree programs in the United States. These institutions account for 79 percent of the national total of 1.9 million graduate students.
CGS represents 460 institutions of higher education that offer graduate programs.
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