The SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program

  More Than a Check and a Handshake 
385 Graduates and Counting 

More than one-third of the nation's workers are people of color. So are more than one-fourth of America's college students. But the percentage of racial/ethnic minorities who are faculty in higher education is a small fraction of the total. Nationally, about 5 percent are African-American and about 2 percent are Hispanic.

The Southern Regional Education Board's Doctoral Scholars Program was developed with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Ford Foundation. It is part of a nationwide initiative, the Compact for Faculty Diversity, to produce more minority Ph.D.s and to encourage them to seek faculty positions.

Since its founding in 1993, the Doctoral Scholars Program has supported more than 800 scholars, who attended 83 institutions in 29 states. SREB states share resources, work to expand their minority applicant pool, support qualified candidates with financial assistance for up to five years of graduate study, and assist graduates and higher education institutions in identifying employment opportunities. The program has maintained a retention rate of almost 90 percent, more than 70 percent of its graduates have begun academic careers in higher education and more than 70 percent are employed in SREB states.

For more information, e-mail doctoral.scholars@sreb.org.