Minority Enrollments Up, But Not Minority Faculty

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Minority Enrollments Up, But Not Minority Faculty

The number of racial and ethnic minorities enrolled in nursing schools during the 2000-2001 academic year increased slightly from a year ago, according to the latest annual survey by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2000-2001 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing.

By Douglas O. Staiger, PhD, David I. Auerbach, PhD(c) and Peter I. Buerhaus, PhD, RN, FAAN

Minorities graduating from nursing programs with either a BA or an advanced degree (e.g., MSN, MA in Nursing, Doctoral or ND) also showed slight increases compared with last year. However, as Tables 1 and 2 show, this growth was not experienced by all racial/ ethnic minorities or for all degrees, and there were fewer white graduates as well.

TABLE 1: Two-Year Comparisons in Enrollment by Degree & Race/Ethnicity
	Baccalaureate				Graduate
	1999		2000		1999		2000
	No.	%*	No.	%*	No.	%*	No.	%*
African American	10,886	10.8	11,114	11.5	2,506	7.8	2,650	8.3
Asian / Pacific Islander	4,551	4.5	4,591	4.7	1,318	4.1	1,463	4.6
American Indian / Alaskan Native	712	0.7	667	0.7	233	0.7	217	0.7
Hispanic	4,452	4.4	4,720	4.9	1,116	3.5	1,243	3.9
White	75,424	75.0	71,357	73.6	25,365	79.0	24,798	77.2
*Percentages based on total nursing school enrollment.

TABLE 2: Two-Year Comparisons in Graduation by Degree & Race/Ethnicity
	Baccalaureate				Graduate
	1999		2000		1999		2000
	No.	%*	No.	%*	No.	%*	No.	%*
African American	2,892	8.8	2,931	9.3	565	6.1	523	5.6
Asian / Pacific Islander	1,428	4.3	1,348	4.3	324	3.5	355	3.8
American Indian / Alaskan Native	180	0.5	198	0.6	49	0.5	51	0.5
Hispanic	1,274	3.9	1,255	4.0	241	2.6	233	2.5
White	26,523	80.3	24,822	78.9	7,791	84.0	7,771	83.0
*Percentages based on total number of nursing school graduates.

AACN’s findings are based on responses from 529 (78.8%) of the 671 nursing schools with bachelor’s- and graduate-degree programs that were surveyed in fall 2000. Two-year changes in enrollments and graduations are based on responses from a matched group of schools that reported in both 1999 and 2000.

Another AACN survey, 2000-2001 Salaries of Instructional and Administrative Nursing Faculty in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, revealed no significant increase in the number of African-American and Hispanic full-time nursing faculty from a year ago (see Table 3).

TABLE 3: Two-Year Comparisons in Race/Ethnicity of Nursing Faculty
	Academic Year
	1999-2000		2000-2001
	No.	%*	No.	%*
African American	516	5.4	504	5.4
Asian / Pacific Islander	151	1.6	162	1.7
American Indian / Alaskan Native	36	0.4	42	0.4
Hispanic	128	1.3	111	1.2
White	8,772	91.2	8,506	90.8
*Percentages based on total of all full-time nursing faculty for the academic year.

Although the number of Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaskan Native nursing faculty increased very slightly, overall the total percentage of minority nursing faculty for the 2000-2001 academic year was about the same as in 1999-2000. However, the number of white faculty members also fell slightly during the same period. These figures are based on responses received from 513 schools (465 AACN member and 48 nonmember).

The AACN report also includes a breakdown of selected characteristics of minority nurse faculty, such as regional location, teaching responsibilities and tenure status. When compared to last year’s figures, there was very little change in the number of minority faculty members who hold full professorships (9.9% in 1999-2000 vs. 9.3% in 2000-2001) but a decline in the number of associate and assistant minority professors (22% vs. 24% and 42% vs. 44.2%, respectively). Additionally, there was a drop in the number of tenured or tenure track minority nurse faculty between the two academic years, but the number of non-tenure track minority faculty was up by about 5% (35.4% vs. 30%).

The AACN represents nursing education programs at 553 public and private universities and colleges. To order copies of these two surveys, as well as the 2000-2001 Salaries of Deans in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, visit the AACN Web site at www.aacn.nche.edu or call (202) 463-6930.