The American Indian College Fund, the Brookings Institute, and the Institute for Higher Education Policy are releasing a report focused on ways to ensure Indigenous students’ continued access to higher education and success. The report, titled Report on Native Higher Education Success Strategies, will be previewed during a free webinar January 15 by a panel of higher education organization leaders.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, American Indian and Alaska Native enrollment in post-secondary education declined by 40% between 2010 and 2021. While this crisis has been simmering for nearly a decade, it gained broader attention in 2023 when the U.S. Supreme Court held in its decisions Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina that race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions programs violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Colleges and universities could no longer consider race in admissions practices, and higher education institutions across the country began eliminating student identity data from admissions applications. The Report on Native Higher Education Success Strategies outlines recommendations for higher education institutions, educators, policymakers, and tribal communities to ensure Native students, who are not classified as a racial group, retain access to higher education.

Report recommendations include promoting inclusive collaboration on data and research; promoting access and increased funding for substantive research and policy development; and creating awareness and access to successful work that is already being done in the higher education field.

The panel will be moderated by Cheryl Crazy Bull (Sicangu Lakota), president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund. Panelists include Robert Maxim, a fellow at Brookings Metro; Leander R. McDonald (Spirit Lake Dakota Nation and descendant of the Sahnish, Hidatsa, and Hunkpapa Nations), president of United Tribes Technical College; and Mamie Voight, president and CEO of the Institute for Higher Education Policy.