Research Factoids
According to just-released student survey data from the National Center for Education Statistics, just under half of all students who entered college for the first time in the 2003-04 academic year had earned a degree or certificate from some postsecondary institution within six years, by the end of the 2008-09 academic year, 30.7 percent had earned a bachelor’s degree (either from their original institution or from another), while 9.3 percent had earned an associate degree and 9.4 percent a certificate. Another 15 percent were still enrolled in either a two- or a four-year institution.
Students who started at two-year colleges in 2003-04 were far less likely to have earned degrees of any type within six years than were those who started at four-year institutions: 34% attained formal credentials from two-year institutions versus 65% at four-year institutions.
Men and women graduated at roughly comparable rates, but there were significant differences by race: 45.5 percent of Asian students had earned bachelor’s degrees in six years, compared to 36.4 percent of white students, 16.9 percent of Hispanic, 16.7 percent of black, and 27.3 percent of mixed-race students.
The bachelor’s degree attainment is slightly better than it was for the previous 1995-06 cohort of students surveyed, but the overall persistence and completion rate is marginally lower.
–”New Data, No Better Results”. Inside Higher Ed, December 2, 2010
