UC Davis would like to improve the rate of students graduating in four years.
And there is room to move upward.
"Our graduation rates are moving in the right direction, but more needs to be done," said Pat Turner, vice provost for undergraduate studies. "The campus administration is working with the Academic Senate on improving these rates through a variety of measures."
It costs money to keep students at college longer, for parents, students and the institution itself. When students do not graduate promptly, they fill up spaces available for those applying as freshmen. With state budget cutbacks decreasing UC enrollments and making it tougher for freshmen to enter the UC system, this "clogging the pipeline" becomes an even more serious problem.
What the numbers say
UC Davis graduates 34 percent of its entering freshman in four years, up from a 30 percent in 1989 but still behind other UC institutions, according to a March 2004 report, "Graduation Rates," by the Office of Resource and Management Planning.
The report states that significant improvements have taken place in graduation rates at other UC campuses, but that UC Davis has seen only "moderate improvement" during the period leading up to 1999.
For example, UCLA graduates about 55 percent of its students in four years. And UCLA's six-year graduation rate is 85 percent while UC Davis' is 79 percent. Berkeley averages 53 percent in four-year graduation rates, and 84 percent in six years.
In fact, four of UC's eight undergraduate campuses have increased their four-year rate by at least twice as much as Davis in the past 10 years. Campuses that increased less than Davis are Irvine, Riverside and Santa Cruz.
Still, UC schools, in general, measure up well against similar institutions.
In particular, UC Davis ranks favorably to other schools nationwide on both four- and six-year graduation rates. According to data published by the Consortium for Student Retention Data and Exchange, UC Davis' four- and six-year graduation rates (34 percent and 79 percent) are much better than the national average for CSRDE member public institutions, which in 2001-02 were 28 percent and 54 percent, respectively.
Also, UC Davis' six-year rate of 79 percent is higher than the national average for private institutions, which was 61 percent in 2001-02.
Finally, UC Davis' six-year graduation rate is very close to the UC system average. So the issue is not that UC Davis students aren't eventually graduating at the rates of other UCs, but that they need to graduate in four years at higher rates.
Road to progress
The UC Davis report recommends that campus policies regarding graduation rates continue to be "re-examined" in light of what the other UCs are doing.
For universities like UC Davis, this is not just an academic matter. With Congress preparing to renew the Higher Education Act, the law governing federal student aid programs, the White House and some in Congress have been weighing proposals that would penalize or reward campuses based on their graduation rates. The state of California is likewise interested in the topic.
Turner says the UC Davis Academic Senate is currently considering making changes that include noting on a student's transcript that they are falling behind the credit load necessary for graduation in four years; encouraging advisers to make students aware they are not in compliance with credit loads; and enforcing the minimum credit-load requirements more strictly.
"Many of the students who fall behind are not told strongly and often enough that they are not on course to graduate on time," Turner said. "One of the possibilities we're considering is to mail students a letter that says, 'You are failing to meet minimum progress.'"
To graduate in four years, Turner said, students need to average 15 credits a quarter and 45 credits an academic year. But the campus has been "uneven" in getting the message to students about staying on track, she added.
Some students may not graduate promptly even if they have enough credits for a degree. Turner said another proposal floated in Sacramento is to start charging students for the "full cost" of their education once they exceed the number of credits necessary for a degree. This could reach three or four times the cost of in-state tuition, she added.
What UC Davis has done
In 1997, the UC Davis graduation rate became an issue when it was pointed out that the UCOP budget allocation formula is structured to reward campuses that have large graduation rates at the end of four years. At the time, UC Davis students were taking an average of 13.5 units a quarter, or 1.5 units less than the 15-unit standard used by the UC budget allocation system.
As a result, the campus received no state funding for about 1,400 students in 1997. In response, the UC Davis Academic Senate agreed to work on the issue.
Bruce Madewell, chair of the senate, said faculty in recent years have been especially concerned about underperforming students. He said in 1999 the senate changed the minimum pro-gress requirement from 12 to 13 units as a way to keep students on track in response to reductions in the budget allocations to the campus.
Also, the campus changed the drop date for "unimpacted" classes to enable students to replace an unsatisfactory class with something more satisfactory during the same quarter, thus helping them maintain an appropriate unit load.
Madewell suggests that some complacency on the issue may have set in after the campus increased the minimum credit load. After all, it was widely known that UC students graduate, on average, in four years and one quarter, and UC and UC Davis students both exceeded the national four- and six-year graduation rates.
But in the past year the issue peaked again. Professor Quirino Paris in agricultural and resource economics asked the senate to report the details of underperforming undergraduate students. "There was particular urgency," Madewell said, because access into the university for some UC eligible students was being denied as a consequence of state budget reductions.
He said the senate recently obtained data on these students campuswide. "This will allow for the better monitoring by the faculty of students in academic difficulty in the various colleges and division and will ensure that policies are being obeyed," Madewell said.
At UC Davis, the university has, besides adjusting the minimum progress definition, implemented the Degree Navigator on the MyUCDavis Web site, which allows students to track their overall progress toward graduation.
Another effort is the "Finish in Four" project which educates entering students on how to finish their degrees in four years. Also, academic and peer advisers have been emphasizing the importance of graduating on time to students for some time.
Joe Kiskis, chair of the Undergraduate Council, says the council is reviewing the procedures the colleges use to deal with students who are falling behind because of poor grades.
If improvements can be made, they will need to be based on better data, he said, noting that the council recommends collecting more informative statistical information. The council expects to have a final report with recommendations by the end of the quarter, Kiskis said.
"The tentative decision calls for enhanced advising including at the time that students are in the process of registering for classes and for a transcript notation that records each student's average units per quarter."
Successful strategies at other UCs
The Office of Resource Management and Planning report noted that other UCs have improved their rates by altering course structures, enhancing student counseling and monitoring and offering financial incentives.
Efforts have included structuring course units in a way to more likely result in students taking 15 units/quarter; establishing minimum workload requirements that ensure full-time course loads and completion of enough units to graduate in four years; encouraging four-year planning by ensuring course sequences are available; increasing flexibility to meet general education and major requirements; and offering key courses during the summer.
Other UC best practices include requiring a counseling session as a condition of registering for juniors and seniors, and providing students with documents that chart four-year plans for graduating in specific majors.
Finally, money talks. Financial incentives include increasing financial aid so students don't have to work as much in the summer, and can attend summer school, and waiving fees for seniors who graduate in four years or if they take summer classes to finish after senior year.
It's not that UC Davis students are working more than other UC students. In fact, the number of hours worked by UC Davis students on campus is about the same as the system-wide average, and the number of hours worked off-campus is less than the system-wide average, according to the report.
Madewell says the issue of graduating on time is now one of personal interest to him.
"I have a 16-year-old boy who will soon be a college student," he says. "I would dearly love to see him complete his studies in four frugal years and one quarter."