New policy says colleges have to include transfer and part-time students in graduation rates
By Hirbohd Hedayat
April 24, 2012 8:16 a.m.
With a growing number of transfer students at American universities, the federal government is beginning to change how it measures students’ success at four-year institutions.
Earlier this month, the Department of Education announced a plan to include transfer and part-time students when measuring graduation rates. The decision comes as part of President Barack Obama’s college completion agenda, in which he called on colleges and universities to cut costs and improve the quality of their programs or risk losing federal aid.
Previously, universities were only required to report graduation rates for full-time, first-time students under the Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act of 1990, said Jane Glickman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education.
Those reported statistics will now have to include transfer and part-time students, Glickman said.
The University of California already tallies the graduation rates of transfer students, and UC campuses already report high graduation rates among both first-year and transfer students, said Robert Cox, manager of the UCLA Office of Analysis and Information Management. He added he does not anticipate that the new policy will significantly impact the UC.
This will force universities to be accountable for areas they might have previously overlooked, and give universities the opportunity to address problems that were previously under the radar, said Linda DeAngelo, assistant director for research in the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.
“These new outcome measures will accurately demonstrate how postsecondary schools are preparing students for success in different ways,” Glickman said. “Data will now capture information for a broader group of students, which should help paint a better picture of how institutions serve their students.”
The government will also be better able to provide oversight at universities through the inclusion of this information, DeAngelo said.
Barry Toiv, vice president for public affairs of the Association of American Universities, said the changes could affect the distribution of grant money.
If a university boasts a high graduation rate, the school may in turn receive higher federal funding, he said.
At UCLA, both first-year and transfer UCLA students have a 90 percent graduation rate, according to the Office of Analysis and Information Management.
The government’s decision comes as part of greater urging from community colleges and education advocates nationwide to place a greater emphasis on the contribution of transfer students at universities, Toiv said.
There have always been advocates for the inclusion of transfer students, especially among community colleges, Cox said.
The new data would allow community colleges to measure the success rates of their students who transfer to four-year institutions, Cox said.
By including transfer students in graduation rates, this data becomes much more accurate, which allows universities and lawmakers to better help their students graduate, Toiv said.
