NPC graduation rate up 25 percent

With the close of the spring semester, National Park College announced this week that its graduation rate is up 25 percent.

Students earned 651 degrees and certificates during the 201718 school year, compared to 483 in the 2016-17 year. The college graduated 458 students for the

2017-18 school year. The spring commencement ceremony was held May 12 at Bank of the Ozarks Arena.

According to a news release, this results in a 34.78 percent increase in credentials earned and a 25.48 percent increase in graduates. Summer graduates will not be conferred until August and are not included in these counts.

Wade Derden, vice president for academic affairs, said there are a number of possible reasons the graduation rate has increased.

“It’s got a lot to do with just making student success our focus the last couple of years,” he said. “Hiring a lot of new people and getting the right people in the right positions. Challenging the status

quo a little.”

The college in recent years has worked to make sure students understand all the processes for graduation.

“Like any organization processes become institutionalized over time and there’s just sort of the assumption that everybody understands the processes,” he said. “And so in challenging the status quo we’ve found that some things that we assumed students understood, they might not. College is hard. It’s foreign to a lot of people so we make no assumptions now of what students know and don’t know, and we’re trying to take a hard look at those internal processes.”

In February, the college started Grad Fest, which Derden said is a “one-stop location” for students who are intending to graduate that year or think they are close.

“We gave them a checkout list of all the things they needed to do, ordering cap and gown, just things like that,” he said. “We found out the students thought these things cost them money. It didn’t cost them money; we do that for them for free. Just in doing that, giving them that checklist of things so they could officially graduate from college, I think, demystifying that process helped.”

The college has also clarified its degree plans to ensure students are taking the necessary courses to complete their degrees on time.

“We’ve eliminated over 200 courses out of our catalog over the last few years that were just sort of there, but weren’t necessarily contributing to degree plans,” he said. “We clarified our degree plans so they’re more stepby-step and that way students know what they need to take, when they need to take it, what order. And we’re still working on some of that. That’s sort of an ongoing process, but we’re hoping with some of the technological advancements we make in the next year or so that we can automate some of these processes as well like the degree audits.

“Degree audits require a student to go sit with an adviser or with the registrar. Just like the degree audit process, that needs to be automated so that students can sort of check-in as they go and see ‘Oh, I’m 75 percent complete. I need to apply for graduation.’ Things like that. We’re hoping some of the technological advancements will help with that.”

Derden said the college has worked with industry and business partners to make sure degree plans are meeting their needs in future employees.

“I think that’s creating a sense of confidence among our students,” he said. “It’s just a different feel on campus.”

The college also emphasizes the importance of celebrating students’ milestones in their education through technical and proficiency certificates.

“All of our associate level degrees … the vast majority of them have a step process so as you progress you get a certificate of proficiency,” Derden said. “And we want to celebrate each of those milestones of students so, at graduation, we award certificates of proficiency and we award technical certificates as well. I think that also builds confidence in students, especially students who … are maybe a first generation college student. So that’s kind of a change as well.”

When new students attend orientation, Derden said they are challenged with the question of what their next step upon completing their degree will be. This, he said, challenges them to move forward which “creates an expectation of completion.”

The Arkansas Department of Higher Education in 2017 launched a 15 to Finish initiative to ensure students are completing their degrees on time by encouraging them to take 15 hours a semester.

“It’s nothing more than when you sit down with a student saying ‘You have to have 15 hours every semester to complete an associates degree in two years,’” Derden said. “It’s just as simple as that because they might want to take nine hours or 12 hours. They can get full Pell (Grant) for 12 hours, but let’s go ahead and take that extra class, that 15, and let’s get you out the door and on your way.”

Derden said the faculty deserves much of the credit for graduation and retention.

“I know we’ve talked about this a lot, but we’ve invested a lot in our faculty recently and it’s more than just finding people who are content experts,” he said. “It’s about having that commitment to the mission and just to give you an example, I know the big news of the day is we’re graduating more students, but in the last year or so in our conversations the faculty has really taken a close look at drops. The faculty this past year reduced the number of faculty initiated drops by 10 percent.

“By just simply making that extra effort to reach out to struggling students and to say ‘What do you need?’ And then we have an early alert process which we collaborate with student affairs and early alert students to get them the resources that they need. We have lots of services on this campus and just connect them with the right services and that helps with retention. Our withdrawal rate is down. Our drop rate is down. Our graduation rate is up.”

The faculty has embraced a “sense of urgency” that President John Hogan put forth to make things better for students, Derden said.

“They believe in the mission of the college to help students be successful; it’s a driven campus,” he said. “We’re challenging the status quo — that comes from Dr. Hogan. … The sense of urgency that he has to help make things better for our students, I think everybody’s embraced it so all this success with the graduates is just a reflection of all those efforts and all those changes over the last couple of years paying off.”