Over the past two years, there has been a great deal of concern over the duration of time it is taking for students to graduate from community colleges and four-year institutions. What once took four years to accomplish is now taking as much as six years, if not more. Some preliminary studies suggest that the reasons behind these delays are often time and money.
Studies (Bound, Lovenheim, & Turner, 2010) have revealed that the vast majority of students that fall into this situation are often working full-time jobs, more than forty-hours per week, with families. Although these students are interested in furthering their education, it is hard for them to find courses that fit their busy schedules. Not to mention, the time needed to prepare for and attend classes.
To add to their predicament, these part-time students are being blended into classrooms with full-time students and expected to keep pace with the others. Many of these part-time students had a weak high-school experience and are somewhat overwhelmed when entering college for the first time.
Recent studies have shown that this phenomenon is more common in community colleges and junior colleges than universities. There is also strong indication that as the economy fluctuates, so does the length of time to graduation. Funding for fellowships and scholarships are less plentiful, federal financial aid is harder to obtain, and students’ personal finances are more restricted, all contributing to slowing the pace of attendance.
What is being done about this?
In October 2010, two non-profit organizations, the Jobs for the Future (JFF) (2011) and Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), held a conference entitled, “Time to Completion: How States and Systems are Tackling the Time Dilemma,” to discuss how attending college could be made more accessible and affordable for students. This two-day conference examined how state policymakers, institutions, and systems can work together to identify the gaps between higher education and graduation rate in their communities.
One of the outcomes from this meeting was that the SREB plans to measure the time to completion rates among its sixteen-member institutions in order to identify trends. Another outcome was the JFF indicated that it would establish new online tools (e.g., The DEI Self-Assessment Tool (JFF, 2011)) for institutions to use to determine the causes that impact the time it takes for students to graduate.
Sara Turner, a professor of Economics and Education, at the University of Virginia, presented her findings during a session at the conference on "Completion and Time: Research, Policy, and Politics.” Turner discovered that among the institutions reviewed between 1972 and 1992, private institutions seem to be fairing better, with a slight increase in graduation rates (~8%), while less notable (unpopular) public institutions were still in decline.
JFF’s Stan Jones called these students an “emerging new majority.” Jones recommended that there should be designated blocks of time for the courses that working students would be most likely to attend and more attention should be given to meet their needs.
One State’s Way to Improve Higher Education
In January of 2010, the State of Tennessee enacted the Complete College Tennessee Act of 2010 changing the academic, fiscal, and administrative polices at both the state and institution educational levels. The act includes a new funding formula that is based on outcomes and not head-count (enrollment). They will focus on the number of graduates that emerge from their institutions’ and track student progress toward degrees. Attention is focused on the State of Tennessee to see what the outcome will be from this unique and innovative approach.
The State of Tennessee also examined the demand and supply of jobs throughout the state, dividing the state into four regions (Murray, 2011). In eastern Tennessee, researchers from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville’s (UT), Center for Business and Economic Research, in collaboration with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, discovered that from 2000 to 2008, Computer Engineering, Human Resource Management, Hospitality, Administrative Professional Technology and Animal Sciences were identified as being the “high needs fields.” The consensus among the policymakers is that if UT and the local vocational colleges offer educational and training programs in these fields, students will be more motivated to graduate on time, with the potential for a promising career.
Conclusion
The common threads throughout the various studies were finance and time.
Financially, it is challenging for students to attend college during an economic slump. Not only do their personal finances constrain them; there is a cap on the funds available to students in the way of loans and scholarships through the local, state, and federal governments.
The community colleges and universities are also impacted by the reduction in state and federal funding, resulting in fewer courses being offered, less frequently, and limiting class sizes (student to professor ratio).
Time was identified as being instrumental to part-time students’ success. Institutions will need to give further attention to the part-time students’ needs and try to bridge these gaps when possible through scheduling adjustments, methods of course delivery, and childcare.
There is a great awakening on the horizon for higher education and we must be prepared. Our students are more mobile and global than ever before and we must learn to adapt and meet their needs.
References
Gonzalez, Jennifer. (October 6, 2010). Helping Students Complete Degrees On Time. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved September 8, 2011. from http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Help-Students-Complete/124839
Hoffman, N. (November, 2010). Time to Completion: States and Systems Must Tackle the Time Dilemma. Retrieved September 8, 2011. from http://www.studygs.net/citation.htm
Jobs for the Future. (July 2011). The DEI Self-Assessment Tool. Retrieved September 9, 2011. from http://www.jff.org/publications/education/dei-self-assessment-tool/1243
Murray, M. (April 27, 2011). Study Identifies Knoxville-area Degree Programs as High Needs Fields. Retrieved September 8, 2011. from http://www.tn.gov/thec/Divisions/AcademicAffairs/academic_programs/supply_demand/S-D%20local%20press%20release-East%20TN.pdf
Rhoda, R. (January, 2011). Complete College Tennessee Act of 2010. Retrieved September 8, 2011. from http://www.tn.gov/thec/complete_college_tn/ccta_summary.html
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