Discussions on the purposes of higher education remain focused on the university despite the heterogeneity of sectors, which limits a richer understanding from various perspectives (Ashwin, 2022). Students’ perspectives also remain underexplored (Cuellar et al., 2022). Informed neoliberalism’s impact on higher education (Mintz, 2021) as well as critical race theory in education (Solorzano, 1998) we consider how community college students articulate the purposes of higher education through their experiences based on interviews with 18 Latine and 25 Black community college students. Findings indicated that neoliberal ideology informed students’ views of higher education more broadly. Simultaneously, findings challenged neoliberal ideologies by highlighting that participants engaged in a liberatory ideology to maintain a vision of higher education that centered families and collectivist benefits. Participants viewed the purpose of college as an opportunity to support their Latine and Black communities. While neoliberal ideology pressured participants to make a choice in major and efficiently move towards their educational goals, they viewed the community college as a space where they could take the time to explore and develop goals that aligned with their interests to foster a future that centered the wellbeing of Black and Latine communities.
