UB a finalist for national graduation rate award

UB is among five public research universities selected by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) as finalists for the 2015 APLU Project Degree Completion Award recognizing universities that embrace innovative strategies to increase undergraduate student retention and graduation rates, and create clear, accelerated pathways for student success.

The award is part of Project Degree Completion — a joint initiative developed by the APLU and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) — in which nearly 500 public colleges and universities pledge to collectively award 3.8 million more degrees by 2025.

The APLU will present the award at its annual meeting, being held November 15-17 in Indianapolis.

“We are committed to providing a transformative educational experience for all of our students and helping them succeed in their academic endeavors,” says Charles Zukoski, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “I am proud of our university community for their dedication to our students’ success and timely degree completion, and I am pleased that the APLU is recognizing UB’s efforts.”

APLU representatives cited UB’s Student Success Initiative and Finish in Four program in recognizing the university’s commitment to providing the resources needed for students to graduate in four years.

“UB’s Student Success Initiative and Finish in Four program provide students with enhanced support throughout their entire undergraduate career,” says Scott Weber, senior vice provost for academic affairs.

“They represent a far-reaching, multi-pronged approach to meeting our students’ graduation goals by helping them understand their responsibilities, and they demonstrate the university’s commitment to helping students earn their degree in a timely manner.”

Finish in Four has attracted national attention as a model program for increasing college affordability and was a catalyst for a 2013 visit to UB by President Barack Obama, during which he delivered a major speech on national higher education policy.  

“Finish in Four has quickly become part of the fabric of our engineering and computer science degree programs,” says Liesl Folks, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “All discussions about student options and pathways start with the assumption that we should do all that we can to support graduation in four years.

“Our advisement staff works creatively to ensure that any missteps can be corrected as quickly as possible. We also talk to students specifically about the opportunity cost of delaying the start of their careers to encourage them to stay focused on completion.”

Launched in 2012, the first Finish in Four class has not yet graduated. However, UB already is seeing measureable results, Weber notes. For example:

• From 2005 to 2009, the average time UB students take to earn their degree decreased to 4.02 years from 4.22.
• UB’s four-year graduation rate increased to 52 percent for students who enrolled in 2010 compared with 45 percent for those who enrolled in 2006, reflected against a national public graduation rate for four-year institutions of 33 percent.
• In 2013, Finish in Four students took an average of 15.5 credit hours versus 14.4 for students not in the program. In 2012, the figures were 15.2 and 14.4, respectively.
• Additionally, through the planning and execution of UB 2020 initiatives to hire more faculty and increase the number of course sections available to students — combined with a focus on degree completion — UB increased the number of undergraduate degrees awarded from 3,505 in 2004 to 4,603 in 2014, an increase of more than 30 percent.

“Our success is attributed to a campus-wide focus on improving the way we deliver undergraduate education and enhancing the student experience at UB,” Weber says. “We changed the conversation and culture on campus. The improved outcomes are also the result of a collaborative effort between Academic and Student Affairs staff.”

Dennis Black, vice president for university life and services, noted that one of the keys to changing campus culture “required reaching out to all UB students to communicate the idea — and the many benefits — of finishing their degree in four years.”

“We have been pleased to join with UB Academic Affairs in a collaboration to provide leadership in building student engagement and investing support staff to make Finish in Four a success,” Black says.

UB has ingrained the idea of graduating in four years by introducing it at orientation and reinforcing it throughout the student’s career — through class Facebook pages and class-year souvenirs, for example — to build students’ identification with and excitement about their graduation year.

For the upcoming 2015-16 academic year, 80 percent of the incoming class has indicated they will participate in Finish in Four.

To help students accomplish their Finish in Four goals, Weber says the university has added several hundred undergraduate course sections in high-demand classes and hired more than 200 additional faculty members. He adds that UB is now beginning to think about time-to-degree for the university’s graduate programs.

Through the Office of Student Success and Retention, the Division of Academic Affairs also provides oversight of Student Advising Services, UB’s centralized academic advising unit. In addition, an early-alert system designed to identify students encountering academic difficulty is now in the pilot stage for the fall 2015 semester, with a full rollout planned for fall 2016.

“The heart of an early-alert system is to identify in the earliest possible stages students who need help so that the university can proactively assist them in meeting challenges affecting their academic success and path to a timely graduation,” Weber says.

He says the goal of the initiatives is to enable students to avail themselves of the full array of research, education, engagement and cultural offerings that exist at UB.

“We have built and are expanding academic support programs that are increasing student access and success, and in the process opening the doors of opportunity to a world-class education.”

Middle Tennessee State University, Morgan State University, the University of South Florida and the University of Texas at El Paso also were named as finalists for the APLU award.