Columbia University recently published the results of its 2025 Harmful Exclusion Alleviation Longitudinal Study (HEALS) survey, revealing insights into Black students’ sense of belonging at the Ivy League institution.
The most recent report is the second edition of Columbia’s HEALS survey. The first survey was conducted in 2024, which provided a baseline assessment of students’ sense of inclusion on campus. For the 2025 edition, 4,934 students completed the survey.
From 2024 to 2025, the overall share of students who agreed that they feel a sense of belonging at Columbia rose from 50 percent to 57 percent. In 2025, some 54 percent of Black students agreed they feel a sense of belonging, up from 46 percent in 2024. In comparison, 63 percent of Asian students, 57 percent of White students, 56 percent of Hispanic students, and 39 percent of Middle Eastern and North African students agreed they felt a sense of belonging at Columbia in 2025.
Despite improvements in the students’ overall sense of belonging, there was a decline in the share of students at Columbia who felt accepted for their race or ethnicity. In 2024, 51 percent of Black students said they felt accepted for their race or ethnicity. In 2025, that share dropped to 43 percent. The same pattern was found among students of all races.
There was a small decline in the share of students who said they experienced discrimination because of their race of ethnicity, dropping from 20 percent in 2024 to 19 percent in 2025. Notably, the results of this survey question are not broken down by race, but rather reflect the share of students overall who experienced racial discrimination at Columbia.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, Black American students represent 7 percent of Columbia’s more than 9,000 undergraduates.
