While the number of men enrolled in higher education has fallen further in the United States, especially the number of “non-white” students, colleges and universities are doing everything to try to attract and retain them.
When Emmanuel Smith arrived on the Montgomery College campus in Rockville, Maryland two years ago, he wasn’t sure if he would like it.
Smith was in his early thirties and had had a bad experience at another college before. When he walked into the administration office to get a scholarship, he didn’t know what to expect.
Then he met the director. The man was older than him and like Smith he was African-American. While helping him with the paperwork, the principal told him about his own college journey, and why it was important for black men to graduate. He reassured him about his choices. Today Smith is due to graduate in December and the principal is proud of him. “They are very attentive to the students here, it was really an asset for me”, stresses Smith.
Higher education institutions across the country are looking to recruit more male students. Over the past two years, the number of men entering higher education has fallen further. According to the latest statistics from the National Student Clearinghouse, the number of men enrolled in university fell 9.3% between 2019 and 2021, four percentage points higher than women.
The gap is widening between men and women
The gap between men and women has existed for decades on the benches of the university, but its widening worries specialists. The number of male students is declining throughout higher education, but the number is falling even more among students of color in “community colleges” [établissements d’enseignement supérieur offrant des formations en deux ans]. As the value of a higher education continues to rise in the labor market, having a whole generation of young men without a degree could worsen inequalities.
If higher education institutions are still looking for the causes of the drop in enrollment of male students, it seems all the more essential to try to prevent those who are already enrolled from dropping out. Support programs for “non-white” students are more and more widespread in order to better meet their needs.
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Noah Robertson
Source
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