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U.S. College Graduation Rates Lack, Continue Slipping
Andrew Porter
Issue date: 9/21/06 Section: News
The United States is lacking in higher education, according to a report released by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
The report finds the U.S. is currently second in the world behind Canada in terms of people age 35 to 64 having a college degree, with 39 percent of the population having earned one. But the U.S. drops to seventh when people from age 25 to 34 are measured.
When people age 18 to 24 are compared, the U.S. ranks fifth internationally in terms of college enrollment, with 35 percent of people attending an institution of higher learning. The U.S. falls dramatically when college completion numbers are compared. The U.S. only earns 17 degrees for every 100 students enrolled, which places it 16th internationally and in the lower half of the 27 countries. Japan, the leader in terms of completion has more than a 50 percent advantage over the U.S., earning 26 degrees for every 100 enrollees.
According to the report, the future ability of America to maintain its global economic and educational leadership is at serious risk, "if the nation's younger population does not keep pace with the educational attainment levels of earlier generations and with the accelerating pace of education around the globe."
In a New York Times article, Patrick M. Callan, the president of the center responsible for the report, commented on the fact that younger Americans are falling behind in education.
"The strength of America is in the population that's closest to retirement, while the strength of many countries against whom we compare ourselves is in their younger population," Callan said. "Perhaps for the first time in our history, the next generation will be less educated."
Despite the slipping graduation rates in the United States, graduation and retention rates at UConn have been rising over the past decade.
UConn was recognized with the 2006 Outstanding Retention Program award from the Educational Policy Institute (EPI). UConn was recognized for their work since founding a retention and graduation task force five years ago, according to a press release from the EPI.
Since 1998, freshmen retention has risen from 86 percent to 92 percent, while the four-year graduation rate rose from 43 percent to 54 percent. Thirty-six percent of college students nationally graduate in four years.
"Our goal is to get the four-year graduation rate into the 60 percent to 65 percent range and if we do that we can push our overall graduation rate towards 80 percent" said Dolan Evanovich, the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, who is the head of the task force, "We believe we can do that in the next five years."
"We want students who want to graduate in four years to be able to," said Jeff von Munkwitz-Smith, the university registrar and a member of the task force.
According to Munkwitz-Smith, UConn has worked hard to help increase retention by increasing advisor support in the ACES program, greatly expanding the Freshman Year Experience courses and starting various mentoring programs to help students who fall behind.
One program mentioned was Huskies Away From Home, an organization started last year to help out-of-state students when it was found that students who were not from Connecticut were leaving UConn at a higher rate than expected.
"We try to make decisions based on data, we look for common characteristics and contact students who leave early to survey them on their reasons for leaving" Munkwitz-Smith said, describing how UConn has attempted to increase retention rates.
"We evaluate course availability and student satisfaction," Evanovich said. "And we are starting to conduct research on sophomore retention. We also plan to start a transfer student database within the next year to help us track our students."
How UConn Rocks
NATIONWIDE: U.S. is second in the world in terms of people age 35 to 64 having a degree, seventh in terms of people age 25 to 34 and fifteenth in terms of people age 18 to 24.
UCONN: Freshmen retention has risen since 1998 from 86 percent to 92 percent, while the four-year rate rose from 43 percent to 54 percent.
The report finds the U.S. is currently second in the world behind Canada in terms of people age 35 to 64 having a college degree, with 39 percent of the population having earned one. But the U.S. drops to seventh when people from age 25 to 34 are measured.
When people age 18 to 24 are compared, the U.S. ranks fifth internationally in terms of college enrollment, with 35 percent of people attending an institution of higher learning. The U.S. falls dramatically when college completion numbers are compared. The U.S. only earns 17 degrees for every 100 students enrolled, which places it 16th internationally and in the lower half of the 27 countries. Japan, the leader in terms of completion has more than a 50 percent advantage over the U.S., earning 26 degrees for every 100 enrollees.
According to the report, the future ability of America to maintain its global economic and educational leadership is at serious risk, "if the nation's younger population does not keep pace with the educational attainment levels of earlier generations and with the accelerating pace of education around the globe."
In a New York Times article, Patrick M. Callan, the president of the center responsible for the report, commented on the fact that younger Americans are falling behind in education.
"The strength of America is in the population that's closest to retirement, while the strength of many countries against whom we compare ourselves is in their younger population," Callan said. "Perhaps for the first time in our history, the next generation will be less educated."
Despite the slipping graduation rates in the United States, graduation and retention rates at UConn have been rising over the past decade.
UConn was recognized with the 2006 Outstanding Retention Program award from the Educational Policy Institute (EPI). UConn was recognized for their work since founding a retention and graduation task force five years ago, according to a press release from the EPI.
Since 1998, freshmen retention has risen from 86 percent to 92 percent, while the four-year graduation rate rose from 43 percent to 54 percent. Thirty-six percent of college students nationally graduate in four years.
"Our goal is to get the four-year graduation rate into the 60 percent to 65 percent range and if we do that we can push our overall graduation rate towards 80 percent" said Dolan Evanovich, the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, who is the head of the task force, "We believe we can do that in the next five years."
"We want students who want to graduate in four years to be able to," said Jeff von Munkwitz-Smith, the university registrar and a member of the task force.
According to Munkwitz-Smith, UConn has worked hard to help increase retention by increasing advisor support in the ACES program, greatly expanding the Freshman Year Experience courses and starting various mentoring programs to help students who fall behind.
One program mentioned was Huskies Away From Home, an organization started last year to help out-of-state students when it was found that students who were not from Connecticut were leaving UConn at a higher rate than expected.
"We try to make decisions based on data, we look for common characteristics and contact students who leave early to survey them on their reasons for leaving" Munkwitz-Smith said, describing how UConn has attempted to increase retention rates.
"We evaluate course availability and student satisfaction," Evanovich said. "And we are starting to conduct research on sophomore retention. We also plan to start a transfer student database within the next year to help us track our students."
How UConn Rocks
NATIONWIDE: U.S. is second in the world in terms of people age 35 to 64 having a degree, seventh in terms of people age 25 to 34 and fifteenth in terms of people age 18 to 24.
UCONN: Freshmen retention has risen since 1998 from 86 percent to 92 percent, while the four-year rate rose from 43 percent to 54 percent.
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thebizofknowledge
posted 9/22/06 @ 5:54 PM EST
Student retention and graduation have become issues upon which a great deal of attention and resources are being focused in many institutions of higher education. (Continued…)
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