Leading HSIs and Excelencia Seal-Certified Institutions are Champions of Economic Mobility

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) are leaders in economic mobility — enrolling large portions of low-income students and delivering strong returns on tuition costs.¹  While HSIs are statutorily defined by their student enrollment, they have a growing reputation for their excellent student outcomes. This analysis explores how HSIs and Excelencia in Education’s Seal-certified institutions perform on Third Way’s Economic Mobility Index (EMI). For over 20 years, Excelencia in Education has released an annual analysis on HSIs, and recognizing that the HSI construct is based on an enrollment threshold, it established the Seal of Excelencia — a framework and certification that recognize institutions that intentionally serve Latino students and demonstrate positive outcomes for all students.²  In 2020, Third Way pioneered the EMI, a metric that rates institutions by the economic mobility they provide to their low-income students. When we examine how HSIs and Seal-certified institutions perform on the EMI, we see that they are leading in economic mobility. Below, we dig into data that demonstrate that these institutions set students up for strong economic returns, often leveraging limited resources to do so. 

Year After Year, HSIs Outperform on the EMI

Traditional higher education rankings value prestige and selectivity, while Third Way’s EMI rates institutions by how well they serve their low-income students. The EMI accounts for the return on investment (ROI) that an institution provides to low-income students and the percentage of Pell Grant recipients it enrolls. Institutions that enroll more Pell students and deliver strong returns on tuition perform better on the metric. Institutions are rated in a five-tiered system. Tier 1 indicates institutions that provide the strongest economic mobility, while Tier 5 indicates those with the weakest.

Year after year, HSIs consistently outperform their peers on the EMI. In the first year Third Way calculated the EMI, the 10 top-performing institutions were all HSIs located in California, Texas, and New York. The following year, over one-third of all the Tier 1 institutions were HSIs, demonstrating that they are powerhouses for economic mobility. Our most recent analysis from 2024 shows the same pattern. Again, HSIs made up over one-third of all institutions in the top EMI tier. These data are proof of HSIs’ impact on higher education outcomes, but what does it take for an institution to perform well? Let’s look at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), an HSI and Seal of Excelencia certified institution, which has been in Tier 1 every year since the metric launched. At UIC, it takes low-income students about a year to recoup the cost of four years of tuition for a bachelor’s degree. And in 2024, the institution enrolled 50% Pell Grant recipients. The EMI accounts for both ROI and Pell enrollment, and by providing that return to half their students, UIC performs exceedingly well.

Seal-Certified Institutions Are Continuously Improving and Leading in Economic Mobility

We can look beyond HSIs to a select group of institutions in the Excelencia in Action network (E-Action) — Seal of Excelencia certified institutions. These institutions have demonstrated the impact of intentionality and continuous improvement, ensuring Latino, and all, students earn an excellent college education of value.

The E-Action network is invited to participate in a rigorous self-assessment process to earn the Seal of Excelencia, aligning three core components: 1) review of five years of data and momentum in key areas of the educational pathway, 2) implementation of strategies and practices that advance Latino student success as a result of the data or informed by the data, and 3) institutional leadership strategies that demonstrate intentional commitment to improving Latino student success.

In Excelencia and Third Way’s analysis, it’s clear that four-year Seal-certified institutions go beyond typical measures of strong enrollment and completion rates for Latino, and all, students. These institutions drive economic mobility, particularly for low-income students. Our analysis shows: 
 

• Four-year Seal-certified institutions lead in economic mobility. The majority (85%) of four-year Seal-certified institutions are in the top two tiers on the EMI, providing return on investment for Latino and other low-income students graduating from their institutions. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of four-year Seal-certified institutions are in Tier 1 on the EMI, demonstrating that these institutions are among the top in the nation at providing ROI for low-income students graduating from their institutions.³
• California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas Seal-certified institutions lead on the EMI. All four-year Seal-certified institutions in California and Illinois are Tier 1 institutions on the EMI. Most Seal-certified institutions in Texas and Florida also rank in the first tier of the metric.
• Public Seal-certified institutions lead nationally. There are 29 Seal-certified institutions that rank in Tier 1 on the EMI, and all but one of those are public four-year institutions. 

Additionally, Excelencia has identified Intentionally Thriving Institutions (ITIs), a subset of Seal-certified institutions that have earned Seal certification three times and have demonstrated intentionality in preparing their students for the workforce. Of the six four-year ITIs, five are HSIs, and these institutions stand out as champions of economic mobility. All five four-year ITIs (that are HSIs) are in the first or second tier of the EMI. One ITI that is not an HSI, Grand Valley State University, is in the second tier of the EMI.

Strong performance on the EMI is driven by intentionality. These key data points reinforce the impact of the Seal of Excelencia self-assessment process. By committing to intentional, continuous improvement through the alignment of data, practice, and leadership, Seal-certified institutions are advancing economic mobility and other positive outcomes for Latino, and all, students.

Practices That Drive Economic Mobility

Seal-certified institutions demonstrate that intentional, career-connected practices embedded across the student experience drive economic mobility. These institutions align academic pathways with workforce demand and expand their students’ access to professional networks. In doing so, they ensure that Latino, and all, students graduate prepared not just with a degree, but with access to careers that offer livable wages and long-term economic mobility.

Across sectors and regions, Seal-certified institutions are advancing economic mobility for their students by prioritizing career readiness, leveraging employer partnerships, and investing in post-completion success. Among institutions ranked in Tier 1 on the Third Way Economic Mobility Index, Florida International University (FIU) and The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) demonstrate how institutions are advancing strong economic returns for their students. 

FIU demonstrates that economic mobility depends on early and sustained exposure to career pathways, particularly in high-demand STEM fields. Through the Department of Energy (DOE)-FIU Science and Engineering Workforce Development Program, students integrate coursework, applied research, and 10-week internships at DOE national laboratories and headquarters. The program has inducted 227 Fellows and facilitated 194 internships. Over half of the fellows who participated have been hired by DOE entities, national labs, and contractors, entered federal, state, or local agencies, or secured positions with industry leaders after earning STEM degrees. With a 98% hiring rate, FIU illustrates how embedding professional career experience into academic preparation creates direct pathways to economic mobility for Latino, and all, students.

UTEP advances economic mobility by intentionally embedding employer engagement into the academic experience through high-impact, employer-led academies. Designed to serve a high proportion of first-generation students, these academies provide technical training, mentorship, and direct access to industry partners. The Hunt College of Business Corporate Academies — focused on Banking, Enterprise Resource Planning, Human Capital Management, and Risk Management — produced 33 internships and 84 full-time roles with partner companies between 2020 and 2024. 

Conclusion

HSIs and Seal-certified institutions demonstrate that economic mobility is achievable and scalable. Institutions can use these examples as a roadmap for delivering real outcomes for Latino, and all, students. Institutions can also take steps to track student outcomes and focus on connecting students with internships, employers, and career guidance. Policymakers can invest in institutions that demonstrate strong outcomes and strengthen data collections to capture institutions’ outputs, like economic mobility. And employers can partner with HSIs and Seal-certified institutions to design career opportunities, expand paid internships, and create pathways to high-demand careers. Elevating these institutions is not just an investment in student success. It is an investment in the American economy and workforce.

For more information on Excelencia’s HSI list and Seal-certified institutions, visit www.EdExcelencia.org  

To learn more about Third Way’s Economic Mobility Index, explore the Higher Ed Value Metrics page.
 

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¹ To be a federally designated HSI, an institution must enroll at least 25% of Latino students in its undergraduate population, among other requirements.

² While many Seal-certified institutions are HSIs, they are not required to be HSIs to apply for the Seal.  

³ Both 2-year and 4-year institutions may earn the Seal of Excelencia. This analysis includes only four-year institutions to align methodology with the Economic Mobility Index.