{"id":11957,"date":"2018-04-26T07:35:40","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T07:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=11957"},"modified":"2018-04-27T07:54:53","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T07:54:53","slug":"when-college-tuition-goes-up-campus-diversity-goes-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/when-college-tuition-goes-up-campus-diversity-goes-down\/","title":{"rendered":"When college tuition goes up, campus diversity goes down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drew Allen<\/a>, Princeton University<\/a><\/em> and Gregory C. Wolniak<\/a>, New York University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As college tuition continues to rise at a staggering rate<\/a>, people tend to worry<\/a> about how much harder it becomes for students and families to pay for college.<\/p>\n

As researchers<\/a> who focus on higher education<\/a>, we found a different reason to worry.<\/p>\n

We examined tuition hikes at public four-year colleges and universities over a 14-year period. We wanted to see if tuition increases at public colleges and universities changed the racial and ethnic makeup of students on campus.<\/p>\n

What we found is that for every $1,000 increase in tuition at four-year nonselective public universities, diversity among full-time students decreased by 4.5 percent.<\/p>\n

In other words, as tuition goes up, diversity goes down. The end result is the nation\u2019s colleges and universities become less reflective of the ethnic diversity of the United States as a whole.<\/p>\n

How long does it take for tuition to rise by $1,000 at a given university? A $1,000 hike could happen over the course of only one or two years in some cases. Over the past decade tuition and fees<\/a> rose by $2,690 at public four-year institutions.<\/p>\n

Why diversity on campus matters<\/h2>\n

The fact that diversity drops when tuition rises at certain colleges and universities is a big deal. For starters, it means that more minorities might choose not to enroll in college and, therefore, forego the economic and social benefits<\/a> of higher education.<\/p>\n

But less diversity doesn\u2019t just affect those who are priced out of higher education. It also affects students who are able to afford college.<\/p>\n

A decade\u2019s worth of research<\/a> shows that more diversity on campus brings numerous benefits. These benefits include a richer intellectual environment that features a variety of different perspectives. <\/p>\n

Across 1,800 empirical studies, there is a striking \u201cconsistency in the evidence regarding students\u2019 engagement with diverse peers<\/a>.\u201d This is particularly the case in relation to students\u2019 exposure to diversity, whether that exposure be in class, through student organizations or even informal campus encounters.<\/p>\n

Examining the effects of tuition hikes<\/h2>\n

Our study looked at both diversity and tuition levels at approximately 600 public four-year colleges and universities, as well as 1,000 public two-year colleges from 1998 to 2012. Diversity was measured by a standardized measure of the likelihood that two students chosen from a college or university at random will differ in terms of race or ethnicity.<\/p>\n

Taking all four-year institutions that we examined as a whole, we found minimal effects of tuition hikes on racial and ethnicity diversity. <\/p>\n

But things changed when we focused specifically on the least-selective four-year institutions. These are institutions where the average test scores of incoming students indicate that they admit a wide range of students in terms of academic preparation and achievement.<\/p>\n

At those those institutions, a $1,000 tuition hike would lead to a 4.5 percent drop in racial and ethnic diversity among first-time freshman. At two-year public colleges, the drop in diversity associated with a $1,000 tuition increase was smaller but still significant at 1.4 percent.<\/p>\n

While our study did not directly track where students enrolled, these changes in diversity at public institutions suggest that some students are forgoing a college education altogether.<\/p>\n