Most ‘full-time’ students take too few hours to graduate on time

Only one in four fulltime college students enrolls each semester in the number of credit hours needed to graduate on time, a new report by Complete College America shows.

Standard requirements of 60 credits for associate degrees and 120 credits for bachelor’s degrees mean students should take at least 15 hours each semester to stay on track.

15 to Finish campaigns are underway in nearly 30 states, including eight statewide initiatives being launched this year in partnership with Complete College America.

Oklahoma is among those eight states.

“It’s pretty simple arithmetic. If you don’t take 15 hours a semester, you’re not going to finish in four years unless you do summer or intersession,” said Tony Hutchison, with the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

The regents received a technical assistance grant from CCA, funded through the Lumina Foundation, to provide the state’s 25 public colleges and universities data, marketing ideas and professional development for student advisers.

15 to Finish is one of five “game changers” CCA advocates for ensuring students complete college.

“For traditional students, it should become the norm,” said Hutchison, the regents’ vice chancellor for strategic planning and analysis and workforce and economic development.

“We continue to have somewhat of a culture within both enrollment management and advising that some students can’t do that. They can’t take that many hours. They’re not going to make it,” Hutchison said.

Data show students who take more hours are more engaged and do better in school, he said.

The Oklahoma 15 to Finish campaign offers marketing strategies colleges can use to communicate to parents and students the advantages of on-time graduation, including cost savings. A common logo was developed for the schools to use in their individual efforts.

“It’s going to vary by type of institution,” Hutchison said. Student advisement might be the key at large universities, while remediation reform might be the most effective thing at small colleges.

Flat-rate tuition

Four Oklahoma institutions encourage students to enroll in more hours by giving them a price break.

The University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Langston University and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma all have flat-rate tuition plans.

OU launched a Think 15 campaign a decade ago and implemented flat-rate tuition in fall 2013. Students who take 12 credit hours or more pay the same amount in tuition and mandatory fees.

Students who don’t complete 30 hours in an academic year can make up the difference during the summer at no additional cost, said Matt Hamilton, OU vice president for enrollment and student financial services.

Students are enrolling in more hours since the program began, and their retention and graduation rates are up, Hamilton said.

The rate of students who graduate in four years has grown to a record 41.7 percent, and more than 75 percent of the 2013 cohort are still seeking a degree coming into their fourth year, Hamilton said.

“We believe the flat rate was one of the things that helped those students,” he said.

OSU launched its Finish in Four initiative in fall 2014, including a flat rate for tuition and mandatory fees for students who enroll in 12 to 18 hours.

“Since implementing our block rate, we have seen a 5 percent increase in full-time students taking 15 hours or more, while those taking 12 to 14 hours has decreased,” said Christie Hawkins, associate vice president for administration and finance. “It has worked exactly as we hoped it would.”

The number of students who graduate in four years has grown from 34 percent to 39 percent, Hawkins said.

Other pieces of Finish in Four include a math placement test to make sure students enroll in the appropriate math class and a four-year course plan for each degree, she said.

Now or never

Some students — including working adults with family obligations — aren’t able to take 15 credits per semester.

Others who are taking fewer hours might benefit from increasing the load, even if it means taking out a loan, Hutchison said.

“We have a real aversion in Oklahoma to taking out loans,” he said. “It’s a business decision.”

For a part-time student working a job for $25,000 a year, it might be the wise decision if he can finish his degree in a year and get a job making twice as much, Hutchison said.

Data show the longer students stay in college, the less likely they are to graduate.

“There’s a glaring disconnect in American higher education: Most students tell us they want to graduate on time, but too few finish enough college courses each year — including summers — to do so,” CCA President Tom Sugar said in the report.

“Our work across the country is empowering states, higher education systems and institutions to help more students accomplish more college credits each year, saving them and their families millions of dollars and making the dream of a college degree much more likely.”