Barriers in Justice and Education
Today's students need – and deserve – a postsecondary system that sees and supports them every step of the way along their journey.
Today’s college students are more diverse than at any other point in the history of our system of higher education. For example, more than 1 in every 3 college students are 25 or older. Nearly 1 in 10 are first-generation immigrants. 42% are Black, Latinx and/or Hispanic, underrepresented AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander), Indigenous, or otherwise students of color. 40% of college students today have full-time job. And our justice system impacts millions of potential students, including a disproportionate number of the very populations the Higher Education Act (HEA) was designed to reach.
In other words, the notion of a “traditional” student is as outdated as the system that only serves such students. Today, students need and deserve a system of higher education that sees and supports them from the start of their postsecondary journey all the way through to degree completion.
