USU maintains graduation rate
The article “Report: Utah has highest six-year graduation rate” in the March 27 issue of The Utah Statesman incorrectly described USU’s graduation and retention rates.
A report released March 19 by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) ranked Utah last for the number of full-time students earning degrees within six years. However, Utah also has the highest number of students still attending at the six-year mark.
Utah is last in the nation for graduating full-time students within six years, at least in part, because so many serve one-and-a-half- or two-year missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said John Mortensen, assistant president for Enrollment, Service and Retention. Others slow down their education because they might change majors, take fewer credits in favor of a work schedule or take a leave of absence for military service.
Michael Torrens, director of the USU Office of Analysis, Assessment and Accreditation, explained this report looks at the time between when a student first enrolls and then graduates. Another way to calculate the time it takes to graduate is by considering the number of semesters a student was enrolled, he said.
Because of the number of leaves Utah students take, the “six-year” calculation is not the best way to measure student success, Torrens said in an email to The Statesman.
The national standard for measuring graduation assumes students are enrolled for two extra semesters, or “150 percent time,” Torrens said.
USU has an average graduation rate for bachelor’s degrees of 5.39 years when considering start to end time, Torrens said. The university’s graduation rate has not changed much in recent years, he added.
A peer-reviewed study shows graduation rates go down when students are enrolled past six years, Torrens said. He later added graduation rates at USU actually rise within an eight-year time frame.
“If you look at USU’s ‘eight-year’ graduation calculation, then USU’s graduation rate goes up by more than 7 percent,” Torrens said.
It is also notable to add that though the NSCRC report talks about full-time students, only about 20 percent of USU graduates are enrolled for more than 12 semesters, according to information provided by Torrens.