Progress in the nation’s overall college completion rate has stalled at 62.3%, but more students at community colleges are finishing their degrees than before, according to a report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center measuring postsecondary trends nationally and by state.
The six-year nationwide completion rate for the 2.4 million students who enrolled in fall 2016 at both two- and four-year institutions increased by only 0.1 percentage point – essentially unchanged from the 2015 cohort (62.2%). However, the trend differed at the sector level, with improved completion rates (+0.9) at community colleges, offset by overall declines at public and private four-year institutions.
The Completing College report series released Nov. 29 examined completion rates for all students who entered postsecondary education for the first time. It included students enrolled full-time or part-time at two-year or four-year institutions, as well as any U.S. degree-granting institution. The results also include those who completed degrees after transferring to a different school, not just completions at the starting institution.
Thus, the report more fully captures students’ diverse pathways to success which increasingly involves mobility across institutions and across state lines, re-entry after stop-out, and changes in enrollment intensities, according to the report.
The highest six-year completion rate nationwide for the 2016 cohort was among students who enrolled at private four-year colleges (75.9%). This includes 66% of whom finished at the institution where they first enrolled and 9.9% who finished at another four-year institution.
Public two-year colleges had the lowest completion rate (43.1%). That figure reflects the completion rate among those earning their associate degree at the same community college where they first enrolled, plus those who transferred to a four-year institution and earned their bachelor’s degree.
The study pointed out that the community college completion rate increased by 0.9 percentage points for the 2016 cohort and has trended upward since 2006 when the completion rate was only 33.6%.
More than half the states saw an increase in overall six-year completion rates across all institutions for the 2016 student cohort, but improvements were small. Only five states had an increase of 1 percentage point or more (Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Utah). This is markedly different from the previous year when two-thirds of states had gains of at least 1 percentage point.
New Jersey was one of 21 states to see a decline among its 2016 cohort of students. The six-year completion rate for two- and four-year college students dropped by 0.4 percentage points to 62.7%.
Four states saw completion rate declines of 1 percentage point or more for the 2016 cohort: Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Utah.
