Hispanic students trail the rest of California's population, both academically and economically.
They have the highest dropout rates in the state and tend to come from low-income families. Details of the joint degree programs are still in the planning stage. The immediate effect of the agreement will be to give National Hispanic University's 300-student population access to SJSU's library and career planning office. Eventually, students from the small, predominantly Hispanic private school will be able to transfer to SJSU as juniors in certain majors, if they meet all requirements. Caret and Raul Cardoza, National Hispanic University's provost and vice president, also spoke of a five-year engineering master's degree.