A small
but significant uptick in the number of U.S. college students attaining their
degrees last spring is being hailed as a positive indicator for the national economy.
“For
the more than 2.27 million students who started college six years ago, the
signs of postrecession recovery are clear: adult students shrank as a share of
the cohort, four-year public and private nonprofit institutions increased their
share of the cohort, and the total completion rate surpassed the prerecession
high,” said Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse
(NSC) Research Center, in its annual report on enrollment and graduation
patterns for each incoming class. A key benchmark is the graduation percentage
after six years.
Approximately
56.9% of the fall 2011 freshmen had graduated as of 2017. That outpaces the
six-year graduation mark for the 2010 freshman class (54.8%) and the 2007
freshman class (56.1%), which had previously been the highest to date.
Almost
12% of the 2011 starters are still taking courses and the report anticipates
many of those students will achieve a degree within the next two years, based
on the freshman class of 2009, which managed to raise its total completion rate
this year by six percentage points over its six-year rate.
Four-year
schools overall had higher completion rates than two-year schools (66.7% versus
37.7%), but a much higher percentage of students who enrolled first at two-year
schools would go on to earn a degree or certificate within six years (37.7%,
compared to 8% of students who began at a four-year institution).
