Graduation rates are hitting record highs at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
The U of A has hit a record six-year graduation rate above 73 percent and a four-year graduation rate of more than 62 percent. Much of this growth is attributed by university officials to the U of A Student Success Office, its new Graduation Pathways Working Group and the Mission 6-Year Graduation Project. These initiatives were created to support the university’s goal of reaching an 80 percent graduation rate as part of its 150 Forward Reaching Higher Strategic Plan, according to a press release.
To date, the initiatives have helped about 102 more students complete graduation requirements, which has been instrumental in raising the university’s six-year graduation rate from its previous record of 70.90 percent to 73.07 percent, an increase of 2.17 percentage points from year to year. These results represent the highest year-to-year increase in six-year graduation rate in the last five years, the release indicated.
“Raising the graduation rate more than 2 percentage points in one year is a tremendous accomplishment and moves us one step closer to reaching an 80% graduation rate,” said Deborah Korth, senior associate vice provost for student success and academic excellence. “These students worked hard to reach this milestone, and I’m proud of their dedication and the Mission 6 project team. We couldn’t have achieved this success without the partnership of the Graduation Pathways Working Group and the strong collaboration across the university.”
The Graduation Pathways Working Group is comprised of representatives from colleges and units across campus, including advisors, faculty, academic coaches, student affairs and registrar’s office staff, financial aid professionals and treasurer’s office staff. The group works to identify students who are close to graduation but have stopped out, are struggling academically or have transferred to professional schools without completing their undergraduate degrees, the release said. The Graduation Pathways Working Group also identifies consistent barriers to graduation and investigates policy and procedure changes that may remove those barriers for future students.
“The Mission 6 project team has been incredibly successful this year in helping these students graduate and start their careers,” said Jen Caba, who was the former director of learning innovation and assessment for the Student Success Center and transitioned earlier this year to the senior director for retention and learning lab retention for the Walton College of Business. With the help of the Graduation Pathways Working Group, we’ve been able to pinpoint the exact challenges each of these students have experienced, which allows us to tailor our support to meet their specific needs. This kind of support not only helps these students complete their degrees, but it also allows us to continually improve and refine the resources we provide to our students in the future.”
The four-year graduation rate jumped to a record 62.22 percent, an increase of 4.13 percentage points from year to year.
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