Report: Colleges import black students

CHICAGO, March 8 (UPI) -- U.S. universities boost racial diversity figures by admitting black students from overseas, many of whom are wealthy and well educated, a study said.

While universities may brag about diversity, their admissions policies reflect race and social class, rather than economic need, Carol Swain, a black faculty member at Vanderbilt University said on an ABC report on the American Journal of Education study.

"Many white leaders seem to care only about having people who are similar but of different racial background," Swain told ABC. "They want some diversity but not a whole lot."

The American Journal of Education study said black students from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are helping to fulfill the diversity quotas at U.S. elite colleges.

It said 13 percent of the nation's college-age black population comes from outside the country. At the top universities, the number is close to 25 percent, said the study, done jointly by Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, ABC reported.

The study also quoted a 2004 study by Nancy Foner and George M. Fredrickson who wrote, "To white observers, black immigrants seem more polite, less hostile (and) more solicitous," ABC reported.