Investing In Student Success: The Return On Investment Of Minority Serving Institutions

Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) educate 20 percent of the nation’s college students, including large percentages of first generation and low-income students as well as students of color (NCES, 2015). However, these institutions—including Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Asian American & Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)—are often excluded from national conversations regarding increasing college opportunity and maligned by media, scholars, and policymakers as making only marginal contributions. One reason MSIs are overlooked is because there is little research on their return on investment (ROI). In order to spur conversation about MSIs and ROI, the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions and Educational Testing Service commissioned four new, empirical research papers by leading scholars in higher education. This report share executive summaries of the papers as well as links to the full papers.