In recent years, a growing body of research has looked at the impact of university 'deserts' (sometimes defined as an area where people live more than a 30-minute drive from a campus) and has found that those who reside nearby from a university are more likely to attend. But a new study shows that these deserts in higher education affect some groups of students very differently than others.
He studywhich analyzed a large data set from high schools and colleges in Texas, found that black and Hispanic students and those from low-income families who lived more than 30 miles from a public two-year college were significantly less likely to attend the university. But white and Asian students from those same communities were slightly more likely than other in-state students to complete four-year degrees, meaning that the lack of a nearby two-year option appeared to increase the likelihood of moving away for college. .
“While all students living in a community college desert are less likely to complete an associate's degree, their alternative enrollment and degree completion outcomes vary markedly by race, ethnicity, and (socioeconomic status),” find the studio. In other words, for low-income and underrepresented minority groups, living near a community college can be a crucial way to access any higher education. Meanwhile, that proximity could lead students from other groups to attend a two-year college instead of pursuing a four-year degree.
The results are particularly important at a time when More universities are struggling to stay open.says Riley Acton, assistant professor of economics at Miami University in Ohio and one of the researchers who worked on the new study.
“If a particular public institution, say a public community college, is thinking about closing, or is thinking about merging, or is thinking about opening a new campus or consolidating campuses,” he says, “they should take into account who the students are. “They are the ones who live near those different campuses.”
The researchers also suggest that universities should consider offering transportation or credit options to students living in college deserts. “If you don't have a car in rural Texas, it's going to be a very difficult barrier to overcome” without some help, Acton says.
Novel finding
Meanwhile, black and Hispanic students are more likely than those in other groups to live in a college desert, according to research by Nicholas Hillmanprofessor of educational policy at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who was one of the first researchers to draw attention to the effects of college location on educational attainment, back in 2016.
In an interview with EdSurge, Hillman says the implications of Acton's new study are “really interesting,” adding that it's probably the largest quantitative study addressing the question of how college deserts affect different groups differently.
“Make it clear that 'wait a minute, the distance is different for different groups of students,'” Hillman says.
One takeaway for Hillman is the importance of making the process of transferring from two-year colleges to four-year institutions more seamless, so that students who live near two-year colleges and are more likely to start there have ample opportunities to continue to obtain your studies. a four-year degree.
Hillman says he began studying geography out of frustration that during the Obama administration there was an emphasis on providing consumer information about higher education as a solution to college access. For example, an important initiative initiated during that time was the University scorecardwhich provides information on college options based on various government data sets.
“The dominant narrative was, 'If students had better information about where to go to college, they would go more,'” he says. “I said, 'These are bananas.' That's not how it works.'”
He grew up in northern Indiana, where the nearest university is 40 miles away. For the people I knew there, information about the university wasn't what kept them from enrolling. “If you don't have a job, you're not going to spend all this money on gas to go to college,” he says.