Cambridge College Named an Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution

School a Massachusetts leader in Hispanic enrollment at four-year colleges

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Cambridge College was named an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) by Excelencia in Education, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization whose mission is to accelerate Latino student success in higher education.  

"Ensuring equal access to a high-quality college education is central to the mission of the College. We're pleased to receive this distinction and very proud of our continued progress in advancing educational access and equality to the Latino community," said Cambridge College President Deborah Jackson. "We believe in empowering all of our students to succeed. We support this goal by creating an environment that is respectful of adult learners, intellectually stimulating and available to fit our students' schedules, and we work tirelessly to keep tuition affordable so that cost is not a barrier to success."

The table below shows the nine Massachusetts four-year and two-year colleges included on the list of emerging HSIs.

The Excelencia in Education report follows last week's Pew Hispanic Center findings that Hispanic college enrollment hit an all-time high of 12.2 million in October 2010. Nationwide, the rate of young Hispanics enrolled in college rose from 13% in 1972 to 27% in 2009 to 32% in 2010. Consistent with the growth in the Pew report, during the 2010-11 academic year at Cambridge College, 13% of all degree-seeking students were Hispanic, including 21% of all undergraduates.

About This Distinction
Hispanic-Serving Institutions are defined by federal law as accredited, degree-granting public or private nonprofit colleges that have the equivalent of 25 percent or more full time Hispanic enrollment. To calculate this equivalent, colleges combine their full-time student headcounts with a fractional weighting of part-time students. To be eligible, colleges must also have a high percentage of students who qualify for need-based financial aid.  Colleges report these figures to federal government's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) database as part of routine reporting for federal financial aid eligibility. Excelencia in Education analyzed the IPEDS database and identified colleges near the threshold of qualifying for HSI status with between 15 and 24 percent undergraduate full-time equivalent Hispanic enrollment. Nine Massachusetts colleges qualified for this distinction and are included in the table above. For more information about Excelencia in Education and access to the full report on emerging HSIs, please go to: http://edexcelencia.org/research/hsi.

About Cambridge College:
Cambridge College, (www.cambridgecollege.edu), is dedicated to providing academically excellent, time-efficient, and cost-effective higher education for a diverse population of working adults for whom those opportunities may have been limited or denied.  Founded in 1971, Cambridge College is a private non-profit institution of higher education accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, (NEASC CIHE).  Comprised of four schools– Undergraduate, Education, Psychology and Counseling, and Management– Cambridge College enrolls more than 8,300 students each year in professional education and undergraduate, graduate and doctorate-level degree programs at the main campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts and across seven regional centers nationwide in Springfield and Lawrence, Massachusetts; Chesapeake, Virginia; Memphis, Tennessee; Augusta, Georgia; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Rancho Cucamonga, California.

SOURCE Cambridge College