is an eligible institution; and
has a full-time equivalent undergraduate student enrollment that is at least 25% Hispanic as of the end of the scholarship year immediately preceding the application date.
Overall enrollment down, Latino enrollment up
Over the past two years, there has been a dramatic decline in overall enrollment, but over the past two years, the number of Latino students enrolled in college increased from 3.17 million in 2016 to 3.27 million in 2017. The number of Hispanic undergraduates more than doubled, to 3 million. That makes them one of only two demographic groups that have seen an increase in college attendance, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Most institutions don’t start out by attracting Latino students; they become Hispanic when the region they serve experiences significant growth in the Latino population. As the number of HEIs increases, more universities are experimenting with new ways to better serve a growing portion of their student population. Some are adding Hispanic faculty, forming committees, and creating events aimed at the Latino community.
For example, Central Florida has seen an influx indonesia phone number of Latinos from Puerto Rico and Venezuela into the region. The University of Central Florida (UCF), one of the region’s leading universities, has responded to this trend and recently became a Higher Education Institution (HSI). They formed a committee and hired an assistant director for Hispanic Service Initiatives to address the growing Latino student population. But this is not enough because Latinos are not monolithic; there is a major cultural shift that needs to be implemented within institutions in order for this student body to be successful. For example, a Cinco de Mayo celebration would welcome Mexican students but alienate Puerto Ricans.
Yet, with enrollment increasing, Latino students have the lowest graduation rates of any other group. Deborah Santiago, one of the co-founders of Excelencia in Education, says ignoring Latino students is bad for business, “You can’t enroll them if you don’t help them graduate….the only population that’s growing is Hispanics. That’s what we’re saying: You have to focus on what it means to serve.
But what many higher education institutions don't realize is how technology can help them in this area, and more specifically how optimized workflows can be adapted to meet the needs of the growing Hispanic student population.
An intelligent business process management (iBPM) platform can help. iBPM is software that helps organizations optimize their processes to become more efficient, streamlined, and adaptable to changing conditions. Using BPM software allows non-technical users to create and model workflows using low-code technology.
