Enrolling and Graduating Low-Income Students

Posted by Institute for Higher Education Policy on November 2, 2015

Encouraging Low-Income Enrollment

Some of the most selective and well-known public universities could do a better job of enrolling and graduating low-income students.

A new report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy examined those selective colleges that have low Pell Grant recipient enrollments to find the best methods for solving this controversial “undermatching” phenomenon. Addressing and studying the undermatching issue has been a priority of the Obama administration.

Higher education is a crucial pathway to social and economic mobility. Yet many of the public universities that should be helping students move forward are instead failing to enroll enough low-income undergraduates. As a result, tens of thousands of young people are missing their first, critical step toward opportunity. And our nation is missing the economic and societal benefits that a more educated populace affords. With broad recognition of this need for a college-educated citizenry, cities, states, institutions, and the president himself have set college attainment goals—goals that rely on improvements in both college access and success. From Lumina Foundation to the state of Tennessee, leaders have set ambitious targets to build a more educated workforce and society

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