To establish the reasons behind the drop in African-American students enrollment at the University of Illinois, the school is planning to conduct a survey.
The university is planning to survey more than 700 students who were offered the admission and declined to enroll. The university is seeing a consistent drop in the number of students who enroll in different programs. In 2016, black students numbered around 550, which dropped to 500 in 2017, and 475 in 2018.
“We yielded fewer, but we don’t know if that’s a financial decision or students are getting better offers,” University admissions Director Andrew Borst told The News Gazette.
“The factors that have influenced African-American enrollment at Urbana-Champaign have been money in 1968, money in 1983, lack of money in the 2000s and money in 2014,” he added.
Borst further said the university needs to contribute more towards the scholarships to attract the black students.
“We’re facing a declining population; we’re facing increased competition for that population. If we want more, we have to contribute more toward scholarship.”
To attract more black students, the university is adopting different measures, including recruiting from areas where the population is growing. It has also hired regional admissions staff in different U.S. states.