Blacks Are Making Tremendous Progress in Master’s Degree Attainments

In the 2005-06 academic year blacks earned 58,976 master’s degrees at U.S. colleges and universities. The number of blacks earning a master’s degree was up 8 percent from the previous year.

Blacks have made huge progress over the past 20 years in increasing the number of master’s degrees earned. In 1985, 13,939 African Americans were awarded master’s degrees from U.S. universities. During the 2005-06 academic year this figure had more than quadrupled to nearly 59,000. The percentage of all master’s degrees earned by blacks has increased from 5 percent in 1985 to 9.9 percent today. In the past year alone the percentage of all master’s degrees earned by blacks jumped from 9.5 percent to 9.9 percent.

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