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New Report Highlights Negative Impact of Debt on Graduate Enrollment in STEM for Latino Students
The Center for Urban Education's new report "Reducing Undergraduate Debt to Increase Latina and Latino Participation in STEM Professions" examines the borrowing patterns of undergraduate students and the relation of that debt to enrollment in graduate school. The central finding of the report is that controlling undergraduate debt can increase the number of Latino students who become scientists, engineers, and mathematicians by enabling them to continue to invest in their education beyond the bachelor's degree.
The National Academies recently issued a report calling for a short term goal of doubling participation of African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and other racial-ethnic groups in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), with long term goals that call for tripling and even quadrupling their enrollment. The Center for Urban Education's report makes it clear this increase is unlikely without addressing the issue of financing undergraduate education. It shows that even low amounts of debt can have a negative impact on graduate enrollment. Latino students with high debt, relative to others in their class, are 17% less likely than students without debt to go on to graduate or professional school. Those with low debt were nearly 14% less likely.
While increased undergraduate debt is a national concern as it can decrease recent graduates' ability to function in society, this report raises the issue that undergraduate debt is not just a quality of life concern for graduates, but may be negatively impacting the nation's workforce by limiting the number of students who go on to graduate school. A prior report in this series noted increasing participation of Latino STEM students at all degree levels is not just a matter of fairness and social equity, but of workforce need.
Recommendations from the report include:
- Continue and enlarge the federal Pell grant program
- Reduce the risk of unmanageable debt by keeping interest rates steady at their current levels
- Expand access to research assistantships, particularly at institutions that serve high numbers of Latino such as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and community colleges
- Create a STEM focused work-study program
- Explore the potential of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)
- Monitor the use of Title V HSI-STEM funds to ensure they're promoting Latino student preparation and success in STEM
- Disaggregate analysis of student loan debt by race and ethnicity to monitor borrowing in federal subsidized loan programs
The report comes from a research grant funded by the National Science Foundation and is the fourth in a series. It was written by Dr. Alicia C. Dowd, Associate Professor and co-director at the Center for Urban Education (CUE), and Dr. Lindsey E. Malcom, Assistant Professor at George Washington University.
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