Higher Education: A New Mexico Local News Fund Backgrounder

A series that offers important background information for journalists or anyone interested in the issue, this backgrounder provides an overview of New Mexico's unusually structured system of higher education, which serves residents spread out over a geographically large state with options that are broadly accessible and very affordable compared to other states.

A college degree is often seen as the ticket out of poverty, and this is especially true in New Mexico. The state’s higher education system is dominated by three major public research universities and supplemented by a sprawling net of branch campuses and a powerful, popular array of community colleges. The result is a system meant to serve residents spread out across a geographically large state by providing options that are broadly accessible and very affordable compared to other states. Its unusual structure, with nearly two dozen governing boards, has been cri>cized as top-heavy, duplicative and expensive.

Many stakeholders are working to increase the reach of higher education in the state. Most university graduates are women, and a majority are Hispanic or Native American.