SAN JOSE STATE University is one of the inaugural winners of a new U.S. Department of Education honor recognizing colleges and universities with a track record of enrolling a diverse student body and aiding graduates’ economic mobility.
The Santa Clara County campus is among six institutions to be named winners of the Postsecondary Success Recognition Program, an initiative meant to spotlight institutions that demonstrate “equitable access, success, and post-college outcomes.”
“Imagine a world where schools with the most Pell Grant recipients are ranked highest, where ‘prestige’ is defined by preparing graduates well to enter the workforce and lead fulfilling lives and careers — sometimes right in their own communities,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement announcing the program’s first-ever winners on Jan. 8.
San Jose State was one of three predominantly bachelor’s degree-granting institutions selected from a pool of 100 such schools eligible to apply for the recognition program. The Department of Education screened those colleges and universities based on criteria measuring the degree to which they enroll low-income students and students of color, help students to complete their degrees and demonstrate former students’ ability to earn more than high school graduates and recoup their costs. A similar methodology was used to flag 100 eligible associate- or certificate-granting institutions.
San Jose State, which is part of the 23-campus California State University system, enrolled almost 30,000 undergraduates as of fall 2024. CSU data shows that in fall 2022, 35% of the university’s undergraduate students received Pell Grants. Three-fourth of San Jose State students graduate within eight years, according to a news release announcing the awards.
This story originally appeared in EdSource.
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