Benchmarking student diversity at public universities in the United States: accounting for state population composition

Regions rely at least partially on the internal production of a qualified workforce in order to maintain their economic competitiveness. Increasingly, at least from a university or corporate point of view, a qualified workforce is viewed as one that is racially and ethnically diverse. However, the conceptualization and measurement of ethnic and racial diversity in higher education appear to be often based on normative values rather than solid benchmarks, making any regional comparisons or goals difficult to specify. Ideally, at least as a starting point, public state universities would, while attempting to increase overall student diversity, benchmark their progress against the state population composition. This paper combines enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics with US Census Bureau population estimates data to provide a point of comparison for state universities. The paper has two goals: first a university-level comparison of diversity scores, as measured by the interaction index and second, an analysis of how university student population composition compares to that of the population the university was originally intended to serve—the state population. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2012