University System of Maryland Sets Goals to Close Racial Graduation Gap: White and Hispanic college students enrolled in the University System of Maryland are graduating at higher rates than Black students, according to recent data collected by the university system.
Only 40 percent of Black students earn a degree within six years of entering college, compared with 65 percent of all students and more than 70 percent of Hispanics. The disparity between Black and all college graduates in the university system has increased 10 percent over the last three years, growing from 15 percent to 25 percent.
University system Chancellor William E. Kirwan says Maryland’s challenge of graduating a larger percentage of Black students in six years is a small piece of a larger national problem.
“The issue has to be put into a national context,” says Kirwan. “I don’t think that there is anything at work in Maryland that we do not see across the country. Unfortunately, underrepresented minorities have a lower graduation rate than the general student population in most states, probably in all states.”
