A leading higher education trade journal, Inside Higher Ed, recently profiled Claflin University, one of eight historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in South Carolina. Under the leadership of former president Henry Tisdale from 1994 to 2018, Claflin successfully doubled enrollment, while increasing retainment and graduation rates. Inside Higher Ed observed that writing about Claflin’s success was a welcome break from the usual news it reports on HBCUs—stories of colleges going under, seeking mergers, as in the case of Bennett College, or sitting in the cross-hairs of accreditors for financial weaknesses.
The news about Claflin is wonderful, but lost in the dialogue on HBCUs is the very real academic advantages that they offer to students. Just about every liberal arts college and university in the nation could learn from the HBCU sector writ large.
Each year, my organization surveys general education requirements, also known as core curriculum requirements, across American higher education in our What Will They Learn? report. We assign grades from “A” to “F” based on whether colleges require foundational subjects: composition, literature, intermediate foreign language, U.S. history or government, economics, mathematics, and natural science. As a sector, HBCUs score far better than the rest of higher education.
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