New IHEP Report: Wealth, Race & Higher Ed

Posted by Institute for Higher Education Policy on August 5, 2025

The Institute for Higher Education Policy’s (IHEP) latest analysis explores how race and family wealth intersect to shape students’ higher ed outcomes—and outlines reforms to ensure value for all learners.

Income is often used to measure access, financial need, and post-college outcomes in higher education—but is it the best metric for understanding college access and success?

Often, wealth offers a more holistic view of a family’s financial security and stability than income alone, providing resources to help them weather life’s economic shocks. Wealth disparities by race and ethnicity are also a defining feature of the economic landscape of the United States.

These differences shape students’ college experiences, while higher education, in turn, generates wealth-building opportunities after graduation including homeownership and access to employer-sponsored retirement accounts. Yet these patterns are often hidden in higher education data. Wealth, Race, and Higher Education, explores disparities in wealth transfers from parents by race and ethnicity, how these transfers relate to college experiences, and how higher education supports further wealth accumulation, contributing to persistent racial and ethnic inequities.

To more fully understand challenges that students from historically underrepresented backgrounds face, this series takes a deeper look at how wealth shapes students’ college experiences and their financial trajectories, as well as opportunities for building wealth after completing a degree. Our findings reveal deep inequities—and cyclical patterns—in college and beyond.

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