UT-Austin Tops in System for Graduation Rates
Graduation Rates at UT System Schools
(Click graph for interactive data. Source:Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Data was gathered from students who enrolled in 2003.)
With reporting by Sam Bohmfalk
The University of Texas at Austin is the clear leader in four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates among UT System institutions.
Data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board show that UT-Austin outstrips its UT cousins, sometimes dramatically, in all three categories.
It should come as no surprise, really, that the flagship campus performs best in graduation rates. Because it is the flagship, it attracts the state’s students best-prepared for college. Those students tend to need less remediation and have a better chance at graduating—and in four years.
Compared with many of the smaller System schools, a higher percentage of UT-Austin students attend full-time. An often-overlooked element in assessing graduation rates is how many students attend part-time.
It’s far tougher for a part-time university student to graduate in four years than it is for a full-time student.
UT-Austin is the only Tier 1 institution in the System, although UT-Dallas is ascending rapidly.
The variance in rates by institution should give lawmakers and regents pause in applying single solutions to the entire System.
Strategies for improving rates at one institution may not work at another.
At UT-Austin, College of Liberal Arts dean Randy Diehl is chairing a task force on graduation rates.
Since 1983, UT-Austin’s four-year graduation rate has improved 59 percent.
Share this article
![UT Is Transforming Education [Watch]](http://alcalde.texasexes.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Picture-2.png){kind=small}
-
Matt Portillo: Interesting perspective, as always, Tim. It's been an interesting week indeed. T...
-
Jerry Cooper: Mr. Taliaferro: Let me commend you for your article about Chairman Powell's "Fo...
-
ethan: well, we kill fire ants so often that they are weker now so the "crazy ants" can...
-
Kathleen Bergeron: Regarding that new logo: I live in the Washington, DC area, and I wonder how man...
-
Melvin: Yes he had 5 years. I wonder what he scored on his ACT when he was a senior in H...
16 Comments
UT may be at the top of its system as far as graduation rates, but shouldn’t we be striving to do better than 51% for 4 year graduates?
The longer students are in school, the more debt they’re accumulating. The more debt they accumulate the more they are delayed on contributing to our overall economy.
@EVielma Absolutely right. And UT is striving to do better. Its four -year grad rate has improved 60 percent since 1994 and President Powers has just named a new task force on grad rates.
Isn’t that just classic bureaucracy “in action?” I’d rather see making college more affordable for students than putting together a task force.
Improving graduation rates makes college more affordable. Graduating a year or even a semester earlier saves individual students and taxpayers substantially.
How do we make college more affordable, who gets to decide?
I trust a UT task force over other task forces in the state pushing ideas that just don’t work.
Shouldn’t EVielma be considering that students are responsible for taking charge of their own education? They need to stick to a major, make sure they pick the right classes, and apply for scholarships?
Of course, it doesn’t help when Rick Perry slashes grants that help students focus on studies. He is balancing the budget on the backs of students who end up having to work part-time and finish longer than 4 years.
Yes, it’s a responsibility of students – but let’s not forget that, when you get to courses within your major, most are only schedule for certain times, days or semesters. So, if you have another course for your major scheduled at the same time you have to wait another semester or year.
Maybe the administration should look into having some professors teach more or change scheduling just a tad.
At a comprehensive university like UT, multiple sections of many classes are available.
UT is a research university. Where is the concrete evidence that professors “need to teach more”?
Also, budget cuts threaten to create the very situation you speak of, not enough course sections.
So UT is the leader of the system that it is the flagship University of and started? Great job guys.
I’d like to think that the goal of UT is to be the best in Texas/the Nation on Graduation rates, and especially improving on a 51% Graduation Rate, which is nothing to be boasted about.
@Shawn Miller UT’s goal is to be the best in the nation in grad rates, and it has named a task force to do just that. President Powers has said his goal is better than 70 percent for four-year graduation rates. You might also note that grad rates keep getting better, so it’s not like UT is hopelessly stuck in the low 50s.
Did you really need to comment on every comment in this article?
Yes.
The goal is to be the best in the nation, Shawn.
Unfortunately, the state and Gov. Perry (and his breakthrough solutions) are short-sighted. Being the best in the state is good enough for them. Minimal state support might help balance the budget and make Perry look good when he runs for President, but it won’t help UT and it won’t help students graduate any faster.
I echo Eliza and Shawn’s sentiments. We should be striving to be the best in the nation, not just the best in Texas. Our four-year graduation rates a not comparable to those of other “tier one” institutions.
Furthermore, the 49% of students who are NOT graduating in four years are having to take out more loans to complete their education, which in turn pushes them further and further into debt. By the time they graduate, they’re set a few years back from being able to purchase a home or a vehicle (if they can get a job) because they’re stuck with debt and interest payments.
UT cannot be complacent about improving four-year graduation rates. Students simply cannot afford to be strapped with a couple extra years of debt due to student loans.
LonghornLady,
It doesn’t help when our state funding doesn’t compare to the funding received by other Tier 1 universities.
When the state cuts the budget, that means there are less advisers for students, fewer courses, fewer sections of courses, and less financial aid.
UT is an outstanding institution, and it deserves more state support.
And students need to take charge of their own education. Rather than spend years finding themselves, they need to pick a major sooner.
And people like EVielma, Shawn, and LonghornLady need to educate yourselves about what UT already has done and is doing for its students. It isn’t enough to criticize based on ignorance.
Brad is absolutely right. When underprepared K-12 grads arrive at our doorsteps because the state won’t fund them at an adequate level, then we have to deal with them. If they are in the top 10% in their high school class, no matter how small, they get in automagically – it’s the law. The profs at UT, TAMU, TT and elsewhere then have to try and get the students who really suffered at the K-12 level in shape – and since the TPPF wants us to do this for $5, it’s not so easy. In addition, some (only “some”) of these students just don’t want to learn – they just want the perks that come with a UT or TAMU degree or ring. On top of that, our own resources are getting cut.
So tell me what remains to get these students out in 4 years.
Also, it may not matter, but EVielma has been haunting all manner of higher ed boards, dishing out the very same TPPF-sanctioned “message” that Lauren Pierce and others have seen fit to embrace, for some weird reason. The TPPF must pay well.