Degree Attainments

According to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the percentage of students who began college in the fall of 2018 and earned a credential within six years rose to 61.1 percent. For Black students who enrolled in 2018, 43.8 percent had earned a degree or other credential within six years. This is more than 17 percentage points below the overall rate. And the racial gap has increased in recent years.

Of African Americas who had firm employment commitments by the time they received their doctorate in 2023, 25.3 had jobs in the corporate world compared to 36.1 percent of Whites who had job commitments by the time they were awarded their doctorate. For both Blacks and Whites, doctoral graduates are becoming increasingly more likely to take high-paying jobs in the private sector rather that staying in the academic world.

Walden University, headquartered in Minneapolis but conducts most of its business online, awarded 1,536 doctorates to African Americans during the five-year period. This was 12 percent of all doctorates awarded to Black Americans during the five-year period. The only other universities awarding more than 200 doctorates to African Americans were two historically Black educational institutions, Howard University and Jackson State University.

In 2023, 890 doctoral degrees were awarded in fields where none of the recipients were African Americans.

Some 2,725 African Americans earned doctorates from U.S. universities in 2023. This is the highest number ever recorded. African Americans earned 4.7 percent of all doctorates awarded by U.S. universities in 2023 and 7.7 percent of all doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens or permanent residents of this country.

The race-gender gap in degree attainment among Black Americans is surging. Today, Black women are 14 percentage points more likely to hold an undergraduate degree than their male peers.

In 2022, HBCUs awarded 2,907 bachelor's degrees in humanities fields. This was a 15 percent decrease from the recent high of 3,434 degrees awarded in 2014.

The representation of Black graduate degree holders is 3 percentage points less than their representation in the U.S. population. Furthermore, Black Americans with graduate degrees earn on average $18,000 less than their White peers and $34,000 less than their Asian peers in annual income.

Over the past 20 years, Black Americans have made significant progress in educational attainment, but racial disparities remain in certain areas of postsecondary education.

In analyzing data of postsecondary education among students who were in ninth-grade in 2009, the study found Black students were significantly less likely than their White peers to enroll in and complete all levels of postsecondary education.

In 2022, African Americans earned 1.2 percent of all mathematics and statistics doctorates, 1.2 percent of all doctorates in computer science, 1.7 percent of all doctorates in chemistry, and only 1.7 percent of all doctorates awarded in engineering disciplines.

Recent data from the National Science Foundation reveals that 2,647 African Americans earned doctorates from U.S. universities in 2022. This is the highest number ever recorded. African Americans earned 7.5 percent of all doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens or permanent residents of this country.

In 2022, 27.6 percent of African Americans over the age of 25 had obtained at least a bachelor’s degree. For non-Hispanic Whites, the figure was 48.2 percent. Some 10.1 percent of Black adults held a graduate or professional degree compared to 15.7 percent of non-Hispanic Whites.

In 1980, Black doctoral earners received about 40 percent of the doctorates they would have received if the percentage of doctorates equaled the Black percentage of the population. There has been significant improvement in the share of doctorates awarded to Black people, now at about four-fifths of what racial parity would call for. But more wok needs to be done.

In 2021, 28.7 percent of African Americans over the age of 25 had obtained at least a bachelor's degree. For Whites, the figure was 41.9 percent. White men were nearly twice as likely as Black men to hold an advanced degree.

New data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that nearly 68 percent of all White students entering four-year colleges seeking a bachelor's degree in 2015 had graduated within six years. But only 45.7 percent of Black students had earned a bachelor's degree within six years. The racial gap was even larger at price, not-for-profit colleges and universities.

Dr. Carcia Carson intends to devote her professional career to developing translational research in cancer vaccines and personalized immunotherapy.