Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Graduation Rates and Impact

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have played a vital role in providing educational opportunities for Black Americans for nearly two centuries. These institutions, born out of racial discrimination and segregation, continue to offer pathways to higher education for Black students and others, fostering socioeconomic mobility and contributing significantly to various professions.

What are HBCUs?

The Department of Education defines HBCUs as accredited institutions established before 1964 with the primary mission of educating Black Americans. While HBCUs were once the only option for Black students seeking higher education, they now serve as one of many choices. For the past decade, approximately 9% of all Black college students have been enrolled at HBCUs.

Number and Location of HBCUs

As of December of 2024, there were 100 Title IV HBCUs located across 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Title IV status indicates that these institutions participate in federal financial aid programs. A majority of HBCUs are situated in the South and Southeast regions of the United States, with half being public institutions and the other half being private.

HBCU Enrollment Trends

In 2022, HBCUs had a total enrollment of 343,682 students. Between 1976 and 2022, enrollment at HBCUs saw an increase of over 54%. HBCU enrollment reached its peak in 2022, experiencing a rise of nearly 20% from the previous year. In 2020, HBCU enrollment hit its lowest point in the last decade, with 279,157 students. Despite the dip in 2020, undergraduate enrollment at HBCUs increased by 0.8% between fall 2020 and fall 2022.

Black Student Enrollment

As of 2022, Black students comprised approximately 76% of all enrolled HBCU students. Over the past decade, the percentage of Black HBCU students has decreased by five percentage points, while the percentage of non-Black HBCU students has increased by the same margin. Black student enrollment at HBCUs peaked in 2010, with 265,908 Black students enrolled, accounting for over 81% of the student population that year.

Non-Black Enrollment

Non-Black enrollment at HBCUs reached its highest point in 2022, with 101,644 non-Black students enrolled, representing nearly 30% of the student population during that year. This demonstrates the increasing diversity within HBCUs.

Enrollment by Sex

Female enrollment at HBCUs has consistently surpassed male enrollment since 1976. In 2022, female students accounted for 63% of HBCU learners. Female enrollment was at its highest in 2010 and its lowest in 2016 over the last 10 years. Male enrollment peaked in 2010 and dropped to its lowest in 2020 during the same period. Male enrollment in 2020 was the lowest it’s been since 1986. It is important to note that NCES does not include information about nonbinary or transgender student enrollment.

Enrollment by Institution Type

Most HBCUs are private four-year institutions, but public four-year HBCUs enroll the largest number of students. Since 1976, learners enrolled at public four-year HBCUs accounted for approximately 65% of all HBCU students. During the same period, learners enrolled at private four-year HBCUs accounted for about 25% of all HBCU students. Enrollment at public and private two-year HBCUs has historically accounted for about one-tenth of all HBCU enrollment.

The Importance of HBCUs

HBCUs play a crucial role in facilitating socioeconomic gains for their Black alumni. According to a 2021 report by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), HBCUs enroll a larger percentage of low-income Black students, providing them with increased opportunities for upward mobility.

Researchers have found that HBCU graduates working full time throughout their careers can expect to earn 56% more in additional income than students who attended non-HBCUs. Furthermore, one in three HBCU students who started in the bottom 40% of income earners transition to the top 60% post-graduation.

Today, HBCU alumni account for 40% of all Black engineers, 50% of all Black lawyers, 70% of all Black doctors, and 80% of all Black judges.

HBCU Graduation Rates

Graduation rates among HBCU students are not as clearly reported as general graduation rates for all students regardless of institution type.

According to U.S. News & World Report, the average four-year graduation rate among the 78 ranked HBCUs reporting data was 23.2% for first-time, first-year students. It must be noted that many factors contribute to a university’s graduation rate. In addition to teacher quality, retention programs, and campus culture oriented toward Black students, in many cases the financial strength of the HBCU is often a major concern.

Individual HBCU graduation rates vary:

Spelman College had an average six-year graduation rate of 76%.
Howard University had an average four-year graduation rate of 60% and an average six-year graduation rate of 70%.
Hampton University had an average six-year graduation rate of 57%, based on students who enrolled in 2015.
Morehouse College maintains an average six-year graduation rate of 54%.

Despite gains, challenges remain: eight HBCUs reported four-year graduation rates below 10%.

Read also: "Scholarships": A Deep Dive

Cost of Attendance at HBCUs

During the 2023-2024 academic year, the average total cost of attendance for on-campus students at HBCUs ranged from $27,610 to $31,452. Average tuition and fees were $12,007 for in-state students and $15,878 for out-of-state students. The average cost for books and other supplies was $1,437, while average on-campus room and board costs were $9,779.

Financial Aid at HBCUs

A BestColleges analysis of data obtained from the Department of Education’s data system found that during the 2021-2022 academic year, the total amount of grant aid awarded to HBCU students at 100 institutions was $551 million. On average, 85% of undergraduate HBCU students were awarded federal, state, local, or institutional grant aid during the 2021-2022 academic year. The average amount of grant aid awarded to undergraduate HBCU students was $11,177.

During the same year, 61% of undergraduate HBCU students were awarded Pell Grants. The average amount of Pell Grant aid awarded to students in 2021-2022 was $5,470. 54% of undergraduate HBCU students were awarded federal student loans, with the average federal student loan amount awarded to undergraduate HBCU students being $5,952.

HBCU Funding

Like all other institutions, government funding is an essential part of HBCUs’ revenue. However, HBCUs rely on funding more so than other institutions. In 2021-2022, funds from federal, state, and local governments accounted for 57% of HBCUs’ total $10.7 billion revenue. By comparison, government funding during the same year accounted for about 46% of all institutions’ revenue.

In 2021-2022, funds from federal, state, and local governments were 67% of public HBCUs’ total revenue. At private HBCUs where revenue tends to be driven by tuition and fees rather than funding, government funds still made up 39% of total revenue.

Under federal law, 18 HBCUs are considered land-grant institutions. This status entitles them to receive the same funding per student as all other land-grant institutions. However, according to a 2022 Forbes analysis, at least 16 land-grant HBCUs have been underfunded by a total of $12.8 billion since 1987.

In March 2022, the Biden administration announced a state-by-state breakdown of funding that would be awarded to HBCUs under the American Rescue Plan. Under the plan, HBCUs received more than $2.7 billion in federal funding.

Despite chronic underfunding, a 2024 analysis of 2021-2022 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data found that HBCUs spend a higher percentage of their revenue on instruction and education than all other types of institutions.

Historical Context of HBCUs

During the Reconstruction era, most historically Black colleges were founded by Protestant religious organizations. Congress' passage of the Second Morrill Act required segregated Southern states to provide African Americans with public higher education schools in order to receive the Act's benefits.

HBCUs were controversial in their early years. At the 1847 National Convention of Colored People and Their Friends, the famed Black orators Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, and Alexander Crummell debated the need for such institutions, with Crummell arguing that HBCUs were necessary to provide freedom from discrimination, and Douglass and Garnet arguing that self-segregation would harm the black community.

Most HBCUs were established in the South after the American Civil War, often with the assistance of religious missionary organizations based in the North, especially the American Missionary Association. Atlanta University - now Clark Atlanta University - was founded on September 19, 1865, as the first HBCU in the Southern United States. Atlanta University was the first graduate institution to award degrees to African Americans in the nation and the first to award bachelor's degrees to African Americans in the South; Clark College (1869) was the nation's first four-year liberal arts college to serve African-American students. The two consolidated in 1988 to form Clark Atlanta University. Shaw University, founded December 1, 1865, was the second HBCU to be established in the South.

In 1862, the federal government's Morrill Act provided for land grant colleges in each state. Educational institutions established under the Morrill Act in the North and West were open to Black Americans. But 17 states, almost all in the South, required their post-Civil war systems to be segregated and excluded Black students from their land grant colleges. In the 1870s, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina each assigned one African American college land-grant status: Alcorn University, Hampton Institute, and Claflin University, respectively. In response, Congress passed the second Morrill Act of 1890, also known as the Agricultural College Act of 1890, requiring states to establish a separate land grant college for Black students if they were being excluded from the existing land grant college.

In the 1920s and 1930s, historically Black colleges developed a strong interest in athletics. Sports were expanding rapidly at state universities, but very few Black stars were recruited there. Race newspapers hailed athletic success as a demonstration of racial progress.

As a result of these phenomena, more than two-thirds of the faculty hired at many HBCUs from 1933 to 1945 had come to the United States to escape from Nazi Germany. HBCUs believed the Jewish professors were valuable faculty that would help strengthen their institutions' credibility. HBCUs had a firm belief in diversity and giving opportunity no matter the race, religion, or country of origin. HBCUs were open to Jews because of their ideas of equal learning spaces. HBCUs made substantial contributions to the US war effort.

After the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, the legislature of Florida, with support from various counties, opened eleven junior colleges serving the African American population. Their purpose was to show that separate but equal education was working in Florida. Prior to this, there had been only one junior college in Florida serving African Americans, Booker T. Washington Junior College, in Pensacola, founded in 1949. The new junior colleges began as extensions of Black high schools. They used the same facilities and often the same faculty. Some built their own buildings after a few years. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated an end to school segregation, the colleges were all abruptly closed.

President George H. W. A reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965 established a program for direct federal grants to HBCUs, to support their academic, financial, and administrative capabilities. Part B specifically provides for formula-based grants, calculated based on each institution's Pell grant eligible enrollment, graduation rate, and percentage of graduates who continue post-baccalaureate education in fields where African Americans are underrepresented.

In 1980, Jimmy Carter signed an executive order to distribute adequate resources and funds to strengthen the nation's public and private HBCUs. In 1989, George H. W. Bush did the same.

Starting in 2001, directors of libraries of several HBCUs began discussions about ways to pool their resources and work collaboratively. HBCU libraries have formed the HBCU Library Alliance. Together with Cornell University, the alliance has a joint program to digitize HBCU collections. The project is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additionally, more historically Black colleges and universities are offering online education programs.

NCAA Division I has two historically Black athletic conferences: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and Southwestern Athletic Conference. The top football teams from the conferences have played each other in postseason bowl games: the Pelican Bowl (1970s), the Heritage Bowl (1990s), and the Celebration Bowl (2015-present). These conferences are home to all Division I HBCUs except for Hampton University and Tennessee State University. Tennessee State has been a member of the Ohio Valley Conference since 1986, while Hampton left the MEAC in 2018 for the Big South Conference.

In 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Unique Traditions: Homecoming at HBCUs

Homecoming is a tradition at almost every American college and university, however homecoming has a more unique meaning at HBCUs. Homecoming plays a significant role in the culture and identity of HBCUs. The level of pageantry and local black community involvement (parade participation, business vendors, etc.) helps make HBCU homecomings more distinctive. Due to higher campus traffic and activity, classes at HBCUs are usually cancelled on Friday and Saturday of homecoming. Millions of alumni, students, celebrity guests, and visitors attend HBCU homecomings every year. In addition to being a highly cherished tradition and festive week, homecomings generate strong revenue for many black owned businesses and HBCUs.

Challenges and Opportunities

While HBCUs have made significant strides, they face ongoing challenges. A 2024 study by the American Institute for Boys and Men revealed that Black men make up only 26% of HBCU students, down from 38% in 1976. In 2023, the average HBCU 6-year undergraduate graduation rate was 35% while the national average was 64%. In 2015, the share of Black students attending HBCUs had dropped to 9% of the total number of Black students enrolled in degree-granting institutions nationwide. This figure is a decline from the 13% of Black students who enrolled in an HBCU in 2000 and 17% who enrolled in 1980.

The percentages of bachelor's and master's degrees awarded to Black students by HBCUs has decreased over time. HBCUs awarded 35% of the bachelor's degrees and 21% of the master's degrees earned by Black students in 1976-77, compared with the 14% and 6% respectively of bachelor's and master's degrees earned by Black students in 2014-15.

The number of total students enrolled at an HBCU rose by 32% between 1976 and 2015, from 223,000 to 293,000. Although HBCUs were originally founded to educate Black students, their diversity has increased over time. HBCUS may struggle to complete with predominantly White schools in recruiting high-achieving Black students. In an attempt to correct for racial disparities, many predominantly White institutions actively seek out and court high-achieving students of color. Following the enactment of Civil Rights laws in the 1960s, many educational institutions in the United States that receive federal funding adopted affirmative action to increase their racial diversity.

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