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The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at NICC continues to look for ways that expand and enhance opportunities, and reduce socioeconomic barriers, for low-income students who enroll to complete college education and training.

Nationally, as more students continue to enroll in college and earn degrees, inequalities in U.S. higher education opportunity are increasing, according to the Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States — 2019 Historical Trend Report*. Growing stratification by family income in whether and where students go to college, and if they will graduate, sorts students in ways that profoundly affect their ability to develop their talents and earn a living wage in a global economy.

Findings in the Report

• In 2017, parents and students were responsible for 48 percent of higher education expenditures, up from around 33 percent from 1975 to 1981. State and local sources accounted for just 42 percent of higher education expenditures in 2017, down from 58 in 1975.

• In 2017, estimated bachelor’s degree attainment rates by age 24 were 4.8 times higher for dependent family members in the highest income quartile than for those in the lowest income quartile (62% v. 13%).

• In the mid-1970s Pell Grants covered two-thirds of average college costs. By 2017 the maximum Pell covered 25 percent of average costs, down from 67 percent in 1976.

• More students have been borrowing more since 1990. In the 1990s just over half of bachelor’s degree recipients borrowed; by 2016 70 percent borrowed. The average amount for graduating seniors has risen to $30,000.

• Black bachelor’s degree recipients have the highest borrowing rates (85 percent) and the highest average amount borrowed ($34,000).

• These shifts happened at a time when 37 percent of Black families and 33 percent of Hispanic families had negative wealth (owing more than they owned), compared with 16 percent of white families.

*Source: Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Education (Pell Institute) of the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) and the University of Pennsylvania Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (PennAHEAD).