As Post-Recession Recovery Continues, College Completion Rates Inch Up
By Allie Bidwell, Communications Staff
The national college completion rate increased for the second year in a row and surpassed the pre-recession high, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Unlike the federal government, the National Student Clearinghouse collects data that reflects a larger share of the total college student population. While federal data only tracks first-time, full-time students in completion rates, the clearinghouse data includes those who attend part-time, and those who transfer to other institutions.
The continued increase is a stronger sign of the post-recession recovery, the research center said. Overall, the six-year completion rate for students who began their postsecondary education in 2011 was 56.9 percent — a 2.1 percentage point increase from the 2010 cohort. The new completion rate is also higher than the pre-recession high of 56.1 percent. For the 2011 cohort, 45.4 percent completed at their starting institution, and 11.5 percent completed at a different institution. Another 11.7 percent are still enrolled, and 31.4 percent are no longer enrolled.
“In the coming years, demographic changes will overtake economic shifts in their impact on college completion rates, as the number of high school graduates declines and their diversity continues to increase,” said Doug Shapiro, executive director of the research center, in a blog post. “For now, the trend represents a strong recovery in student success rates, across all of higher education, from the declines caused by the recession.”
Still, the report also showed that significant racial and ethnic and age disparities still continue. Overall, Asian and white students (68.9 percent and 66.1 percent, respectively) had above average completion rates, while Hispanic and African-American students had lower completion rates (48.6 percent and 39.5 percent, respectively). Additionally, the report noted, African-American students were the only student group more likely to “stop out or discontinue enrollment” than to complete within six years.
The report also found that adult learners were less likely to complete their credentials within six years. For the most recent cohort, 41.7 percent of adult learners completed within six years, compared with 61.7 percent of 18- to 24-year-old students.
The overall completion rate for students who started at four-year institutions was higher than for those who started at two-year institutions, according to the report. More than half (55.1 percent) of those who started at four-year institutions completed at the same institution, while another 11.6 percent completed at a different institution. About one-quarter (26.5 percent) of those who started at a two-year institution completed at the same institution, while another 11.2 percent completed at a different institution.
“The challenges for institutions now serving the potential graduates of the cohorts that entered college in 2012 and later include continuing to adapt their programs to better meet the size, demographic composition, and academic needs of these cohorts,” the report said. “The gaps in completion rates identified in this report, based on student enrollment behaviors such as enrollment intensities, age at entry, and transfer and mobility among multiple institutions, can help point the way, showing where more work is needed to tailor programs and policies for specific student populations.”
Publication Date: 12/19/2017
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