A Comprehensive List of Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs)

Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) are colleges and universities that deliberately enroll and support students from underrepresented populations, providing critical access to higher education for diverse communities.

These institutions include seven key categories:

• Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs)
• Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs)
• Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)
• Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
• Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs)
• Native American-Serving Non-Tribal Institutions.

MSIs play a transformative role in creating educational opportunities for minority, first-generation, and low-income students by offering targeted support, culturally relevant programming, and pathways to academic and professional success.

What role does MSIs play in Higher Education?

Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) play a crucial role in the U.S. higher education landscape:

1. Access and Opportunity: MSIs provide access to higher education for millions of students of color, many from low-income and first-generation backgrounds.
2. Economic Mobility: MSIs propel students up the economic ladder at two to three times the rates of non-MSIs, contributing significantly to social and economic mobility
3. Diverse Enrollment: MSIs collectively enroll over 5 million students nationwide, representing about 22% of all undergraduate enrollment and 39% of undergraduate students of color
4. Targeted Support: These institutions offer comprehensive student support services tailored to the unique needs of underrepresented communities, often resulting in higher graduation rates for these groups
5. Workforce Diversity: MSIs play a critical role in diversifying the workforce by providing culturally relevant educational experiences
6. Cultural Preservation: MSIs, particularly HBCUs and TCUs, serve as cultural centers that integrate and preserve the history, language, and traditions of the communities they serve

RoEDU™ for Minority Serving Institutions

Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) provide a significant return on education for students, particularly in terms of economic mobility and overall success. MSIs create economic mobility for its graduates as highlighted by the researchers of Opportunity Insights.

Mobility rate is defined as the fraction of students moving from the bottom income quintile to the top quintile.

Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) have higher mobility rates compared to non-MSIs, indicating they are more effective at promoting upward economic mobility for their students.

1. The mobility rate of MSIs was higher than that of non-MSIs.
2. Four-year Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) had a mobility rate three times that of non-MSIs.
3. The extended mobility rate (movement from the bottom two income quintiles to the top two) was also greater at MSIs compared to non-MSIs.
   • HSIs, Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) had a mobility rate of around 20%, double that of non-MSIs at 9%.

These findings demonstrate that choosing an MSI over a non-MSI gives students a better shot at changing their post-graduate success. While nothing is guaranteed, the data trend suggests improved outcomes if students should choose to go to an MSI vs. not.