Essay: Creating a List of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)

Overview

Excelencia in Education has been tracking the growth of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions (eHSIs), and Hispanic-Serving Institutions with Graduate Programs (gHSIs) for over 20 years and has released its analyses on these institutions annually.

The purpose of this essay is to provide a common definition and methodology for identifying HSIs that will result in better, more accurate analysis. In the current federal landscape, where no active eligibility framework or comprehensive HSI list exists, this approach offers a consistent and transparent way to identify these institutions. Using a common definition based on an established methodology will more accurately represent this group of institutions. As the Latino population continues to grow, so will the number of Latino college-bound students. The number and size of HSIs will also continue to grow and will play a critical role in enhancing Latino students' access to higher education throughout the United States.

Excelencia’s methodology excludes institutions with fewer than 100 total undergraduate students enrolled. Their enrollment fluctuates enough year to year that HSI status can change based on a difference of one or two Latino students, which would produce inconsistent identification across years. For example, an institution enrolling 100 undergraduates needs 25 Latino students to meet the 25% threshold, meaning a single student's continued enrollment determines whether that institution appears on the list. The sustainability of these smaller institutions is limited, as their small enrollment signals a lack of viability and sufficient resources for operations long-term. Further, institutions of this size are unlikely to be competitive for Title V capacity-building funds relative to larger, more established institutions.