Graduation Numbers to be Concerned About

Complete College America and its Alliance of States released their latest report Monday, titled Four-Year Myth. Below are a few numbers, national and Indiana-specific, that explain that title and its consequences.

Nationally

  • At public two-year institutions, 5% of full-time students pursuing associates degrees graduate on time. An extra year costs $15,933 in tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation and other expenses. In addition, students give up approximately $35,000 in lost wages by graduating late. The total cost: $50,933.
  • At public four-year institutions, 19% (non-flagship) and 36% (flagship/very high research) of full-time students graduate on time. An extra year costs $22,826 in tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation and other expenses. In addition, students give up more than $45,000 in lost wages by graduating late. The total cost is over $68,000.
  • Only 50 out of the more than 580 public four-year institutions reviewed have on-time graduation rates at or above 50% for their first-time, full-time students.

Indiana

  • 6% of full-time students pursuing associates degrees at two-year institutions graduate on time. On average, students graduate in four years with 93 credits (rather than the customary 60 credits). Each extra year costs $51,748 in school-related expenses and lost wages.
  • 17% of full-time students at four-year non-flagship institutions graduate on time. On average, students graduate in five years with 143 credits, rather than the customary 120 credits. Each extra year costs $68,176 in school-related expenses and lost wages.
  • 42% of full-time students at four-year flagship/very high research institutions graduate on time. On average, students graduate in 4.4 years with 134 credits, rather than the customary 120 credits. Each extra year costs $68,176 in school-related expenses and lost wages.

According to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, the state has a number of  initiatives underway that support on-time completion, including:

  • Requiring clear semester-by-semester degree maps for every public college student
  • Promoting more proactive college advising practices to keep students on track and intervene as needed
  • Launching a statewide “15 to Finish” campaign to change the long standing perception that taking 12 credits per semester is enough to graduate on time

‘Good’ Higher Ed Performance Not Good Enough

A new higher education report finds that Indiana’s public colleges and universities are performing "relatively well" while generally receiving "average or near average" funding.

Teresa Lubbers, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education, doesn’t want anyone to be satisfied. Acknowledging that some in the Hoosier state might be content and even ask, "What do you expect?" Lubbers answers with, "I expect a whole lot more than middle of the pack."

The report, Crossing the Starting Line: An Examination of Productivity at Indiana’s Public Colleges and Universities, was prepared by Patrick Kelly of NCHEMS — the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. It is part of an Indiana Chamber and higher education commission productivity initiative funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education.

"The good news is that Indiana is a frontrunner in tackling this issue," Kelly states. The findings are not "gloom and doom" and he emphasized that more money is not the answer — "it’s not just about increasing resources to improve performance."

Indiana’s public college and university campuses are compared to their national (and largely self-identified) peers. Performance measures are graduation rates within 150% of program time, first-year retention rates and undergraduate credentials per 100 full-time students. The report also emphasizes Indiana’s dramatic underproduction of associate degrees and certificates compared to other states.

Lubbers and Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar both pointed to the big picture, the necessity for more people to earn higher education credentials and linking that to business and workforce needs.

What’s next? Positive steps would include continuing the move toward increased completion and performance-based funding for colleges and universities (Indiana is trying but it’s not an easy path from the traditional state dollars based on the number of students coming through the doors) and improving the entry for older adults into the education system (a focus for Ivy Tech, but one that is critical to businesses and their employees).

The full report, press release, individual campus profiles and additional higher education news and research are available at the Chamber-created Achieve Indiana web site.

Tennessee Education Reform With an Indiana Flavor

The Complete College Tennessee Act is the name and the goal is a higher-functioning higher education system. And there are some Indiana connections.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen signed the legislation late last month. It intends to send remediation classes to community colleges, make it easier for two-year graduates to transfer to four-year universities and increase the number of students who actually earn their degrees. Sounds similar to some of the components in the Reaching Higher plan from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

One reason may be that former Indiana Commissioner Stan Jones, the Indiana Chamber’s 2009 Government Leader of the Year, contributed to the development of the Tennessee initiative. Jones now heads a Washington, D.C. nonprofit focused on helping states improve college attainment.

Jones was quoted in the Chattanooga Times Free Press as saying, "People are uncomfortable with change. The more they hear about it and about strategies, the more comfortable they will be."

In a Nashville Public Radio report, Gov. Bredesen focused on the workforce advantages, emphasizing that more people with degrees will bring better-paying jobs to the state. He said: 

“Look, I don’t have some number in mind. I mean, I know that we are, as I’ve said, we are well below the national averages in terms of the number of college graduates. And our rate is not sufficient to catch us up. One thing I’m very clear on is, we’re not going to compete, in the long term, with states that have much higher rates of college graduates in the kind of economy we’re going to have."

The Chamber focused on Indiana’s Reaching Higher efforts in the March-April 2008 BizVoice. In this year’s higher education issue (in the mail and available online on February 26), some of the Indiana initiatives as they related to the relationship between community colleges and regional campuses are examined in-depth.