Student Data Glossary – Race/Ethnicity

The U.S. federal government requires all universities, including UNCA, to report student headcounts by race and ethnicity to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). IPEDS adheres to U.S. Census-based definitions for race and ethnicity, which have the following effects on student classification:

  • Students who are U.S. citizens and who self-identify as Hispanic will be considered solely “Hispanic”, regardless of other races that they select on their application.
  • Students who are U.S. citizens and who self-identify as more than one race, but not Hispanic, will be considered solely “Two or More Races”.
  • Students who are not U.S. citizens or residents will be considered “Non-Resident Alien”, regardless of other races or ethnicities that they select on their application. 

For example, a student who is Black, Hispanic, and white will only be classified as “Hispanic”, in IPEDS reports. If the same student was not a U.S. citizen or resident, they would only be classified as “Non-Resident Alien”. In both cases, detailed information about the student’s self-identified racial/ethnic information may be obscured by the IPEDS classification system. 

Although IPEDS aggregates student race/ethnicity according to these rules, there is often interest in a more detailed examination of the racial/ethnic composition of the student body. In order to provide our campus community with such information, the Office of Institutional Research (IR) often provides “disaggregated” race and ethnicity data alongside IPEDS-aggregated race and ethnicity data. In IR-produced reports, these classification systems are typically differentiated by the terms “Race/Ethnicity (IPEDS)” and “Race/Ethnicity (Disaggregated)”.

For example, a report which shows the total headcount of students who are “Asian (IPEDS)” will show the total number of students who are U.S. citizens and who self-identified as only Asian and no other race/ethnicity, whereas a report which shows the total headcount of students who are “Asian (Disaggregated)” will show the total number of students who self-identified as Asian, regardless of other race, ethnicity, or citizenship statuses. 

Please email ir@unca.edu if you have questions about these definitions or classification systems.