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What are MSIs and is it an applicable term outside of the USA?
“Minority Serving Institutions” (MSIs) might be a well understood and used term in the US, but how is this term understood in the rest of the world? Is it even applicable?
MSIs in the US are federally defined and include mission-led institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) as well as higher education institutions that have either over 25% low-income Latino or 10% low-income Asian and Pacific Islander students.
Similar institutions do exist outside of the US. The UPenn Center for Minority Serving Institutions have identified at least 66 “MSIs” in 22 countries, such as Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in Australia, Univeristy of Fort Hare in South Africa, Sami Unversity College in Norway, and numerous Jesuit-led initiatives in refugee camps around the world.
But many more institutions serve marginalized students across the globe – and that is where the Fellows of the Salzburg Global session Students at the Margins and the Institutions that Serve Them come in.
The Fellows have been encouraged to expand this list and network of marginalized student-serving institutions – the focus being on the “serving”.
Many colleges and universities have minorities attending them, but what are these institutions doing to not only ensure access to higher education for marginalized students, but also ensure that these students thrive once there and ultimately graduate? Have they “embraced” their status as an MSI?
The expanded list will be compiled and circulated by the Center for MSIs after the Salzburg session.
The session "Students at the Margins and the Institutions that Serve Them: A Global Perspective" is being conducted in partnership with Educational Testing Service and Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions. You can follow all discussions on Twitter with the hashtag #SalzburgMSI and read all our coverage on the session page: www.salzburgglobal.org/go/537