During the 1980s, leaders recognized a small set of institutions that enrolled a large percentage of Latino students but were working with low levels of resources to educate them. The classification of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) officially recognized these institutions for capacity-building and other supports.
Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) are defined as accredited, degree-granting public or private nonprofit institutions of higher education with 25% or more total undergraduate Hispanic full-time equivalent (FTE) student enrollment.
Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit that accelerates Latino student success in higher education by promoting Latino student achievement, conducting analysis to inform educational policies, and advancing institutional practices, recently updated their list of HSIs to assist in considering and analyzing institutions that meet the basic legislative requirements to be designated as an HSI. To create this list, and the accompanying data analysis highlights, they used data from the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Highlights from a report they produced based on this data can be found below:
- During the 2019-20 academic year, there were a total of 569 institutions that met the enrollment definition of HSIs.
- HSIs represent 18% of all colleges/universities in the United States.
- 67% of all Latino undergraduates in the United States attend an HSI.
- The majority of HSIs (67%) are public institutions.
- By sector, HSI’s are divided accordingly: public, two-year (41%), public, four-year (26%), private, four-year (30%), and private, two-year (3%).
- While HSIs are located in 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, they are geographically concentrated in four locations.
- The majority of HSIs are located in California (175), Texas (100), Puerto Rico (64), and New York (35).
- Of these 569 HSIs, more than half (54%) are located in cities compared to 7% in suburbs, 30% in towns, and 9% in rural areas.
- Hispanic-Serving Institutions also provide an education past the undergraduate level.
- There were 237 HSIs with graduate programs in the school year 2019-2020.
- 42% of all HSIs have graduate programs.
