A new report from the Dr. N. Joyce Payne Research Center at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund has documented the economic achievements of public historically Black colleges and universities, despite their historic underfunding.
Since 2004, applications to public HBCUs have surged by 126 percent – significantly higher than the 26.6 percent overall enrollment growth at all postsecondary institutions in the nation. This could be attributed to the affordability of public HBCUs, where average tuition and fees are about half the cost of attending private HBCUs. Additionally, more than three-quarters of students at public HBCUs receive some form of financial aid. After graduating, nearly 70 percent of public HBCU students reach the middle class – some 50 percent higher than graduates of predominately White institutions.
Notably, public HBCUs produce a significant majority of all HBCU degrees, particularly in STEM fields. About 80 percent of all HBCUs with Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET)-accredited engineering and technology programs are public institutions. Furthermore, 85 percent of HBCUs that have achieved the prestigious R2 research classification are public. Thus, public HBCUs are directly impacting not just the nation’s STEM pipeline, but also scientific breakthroughs in fields such as agriculture, healthcare, and technology.
Despite their significant achievements and contributions to the U.S. economy and workforce, public HBCUs have significantly fewer financial resources than their private counterparts. The average endowment of a public HBCU is just $41 million, while endowments at private HBCUs average $133 million. Although public HBCUs enroll over three-quarters of all undergraduate HBCU students, they receive less than 60 percent as much federal funding per student compared to private HBCUs.
“The data is clear and the message is urgent: public HBCUs are not just educational institutions; they are strategic national assets,” said M. C. Brown II, executive director of the Payne Research Center. “The surge in demand is a vote of confidence from a generation that sees their value. However, we are leaving immense national potential on the table by not addressing the resource inequities that have persisted for decades. Investing in public HBCUs is not merely about equity; it is a strategic necessity for American prosperity and global leadership.”
