The range of challenges for educators in the graduate school setting includes students' differences associated with age, language barriers, learning styles, disability, and culture. The literature also demonstrates student populations in higher education differ in academic ability, gender, socioeconomic factors, religion, and life experiences. Thus, the integration of cultural competence in the graduate school settings is imperative as the student populations becomes increasingly more diverse. The educators must demonstrate an understanding to the student to engage and motivate them to learn. Higher education faculty and administrators must determine the strategy they will employ to meet the student demands and simultaneously compete with other colleges. The strategy should address arenas where the curriculum engages the diverse student population in humanities, liberal arts, professional activities, and conveys the career opportunities. The purpose of this research is to understand the types of learning barriers in higher education, assess the importance of cultural competence, and evaluate the correlation between cultural competence and learning outcomes. [For the full proceedings, see ED656038.]