By Kimberly Scranage
The national agenda is now focused on outcomes in higher education, especially student graduation rates. Nationally, only 60 percent of full-time students earn their degree in eight years. Part-time rates are even lower, landing at only 24 percent. Recent research from national education policy groups, such as Complete College America, suggests that one of the most significant inhibitors to student graduation is time. The more time a student spends in college, the less likely he or she is to actually graduate and earn a degree. This lengthening of time in college is often the result of students taking more credits than they need to graduate. Nationally, students are taking an average of 137 credits by the time they graduate with a bachelor’s degree, which equals 17 credit hours or more than five courses beyond what is required.
According to Dr. Kathy Butler, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs with the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, “Economic development is closely tied to the educational attainment level of the available work force. With only 27 percent of West Virginia’s working age adults having an associate’s degree or higher, it is important that our state focuses on college completion. The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission has made college completion its top priority.”
The commission is addressing this statewide priority in a number of ways. According to Butler, each of the state’s public institutions is reviewing program offerings to eliminate duplication of content while assuring quality, making it possible for students to complete a bachelor’s degree program in four years. Part of that assessment also includes examination of ways to provide accessible higher education opportunities for working adults, including flexible scheduling and online course delivery.
Responding to the need to reduce time to graduation, Shepherd University took the lead in West Virginia in fall 2011 by reducing its degree requirements from 128 required hours to 120. This change in the curriculum had an immediate effect. Students can now graduate by successfully completing 15 credits in each of eight semesters. By May of 2012, a total of 62 Shepherd students graduated a semester earlier than expected under the new policy. The acceleration of their degree completion not only allows them to enter the work force earlier, but it also saves them money they would have spent on tuition, fees and room and board for another semester. On average, each student saved $4,300 by graduating earlier, a total savings of $267,000 for the group.
By graduating more students in four years, the university is able to manage class offerings more efficiently, allowing more options to incoming and returning students. Additionally, an innovative core curriculum was implemented at the same time that includes a first-year experience, a writing intensive course within the major and a senior capstone course. In essence, the policy change in the number of required credits and the revised core curriculum have both increased access for students from West Virginia and surrounding states.
When considering this major curriculum change, the faculty at Shepherd University was concerned with maintaining the quality of the academic program and the value of a Shepherd degree. Shepherd University has long been recognized for the rigor of its academic programs as well as the gains students make in their abilities to think critically, solve problems and write effectively. Maintaining these hallmarks of quality while ensuring that all degree programs can be completed within an eight-semester period was recognized as the top priority of the initiative.
After one full year of implementation, many members of the faculty believe that the process has strengthened the academic programs, especially by requiring all students to engage in a capstone experience. While data related to the impact of the initiative on academic quality will be collected over the next several years, recent trends in retention and graduation are promising.
Shepherd University’s change in policy to require only 120 credits to obtain a degree is one of many initiatives the university has implemented to help students obtain a quality degree in four years. Combined with enhancements to advising and course scheduling, the university continues to invest in ways to move students from their studies to the world of work or graduate education. In this way, Shepherd is able to fulfill its position as a premier public liberal arts university.
“A statewide focus on college completion is vitally important,” Butler says, “because the education of all West Virginians is essential to our future.”
About the Author
Kimberly Scranage has been the vice president for Enrollment Management at Shepherd University since 2007. In this role she guides the university’s strategic efforts in achieving and maintaining the optimum recruitment, retention and graduation rates of students within the academic context of the institution. Scranage has a master’s degree in strategic leadership in addition to a bachelor’s degree in psychology and an associate’s degree in respiratory care. Scranage, who has taught many courses as an adjunct faculty member, has been an active consultant to other colleges and universities in the areas of analysis and development of enrollment strategies to improve productivity, service, quality and competitiveness.
