Black Enrollments on the Rise at Graduate Schools of Theology

The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, headquartered in Pittsburgh, represents 254 member institutions. These graduate schools of theology include Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox institutions.

The association reports that in the 2007-08 academic year its member schools enrolled nearly 80,000 students. There were 8,839 black students at these schools. They made up 11.1 percent of all students at these schools.

Black enrollments are on the rise at these graduate schools of theology. Since 2003 black enrollments are up 9 percent while overall enrollments have increased only slightly. As a result, the black share of total enrollments has increased from 10.3 percent in 2003 to 11.1 percent in 2007.

Women make up 35 percent of the total enrollments at these 254 graduate schools of theology. But black women make up 49 percent of all African-American enrollments at these schools.

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