The survey on hot topics was added in 2007 to the annual survey of state directors of community colleges conducted by the University of Alabama Education Policy Center. The survey data provided an opportunity for examining the personal attitudes toward the hot topics and the associations between these attitudes and state contexts. This study finds…

This Accountability Report shows the status and progression of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) from one year to the next. The Executive Summary is divided into the following sections: (1) Dashboard; (2) Key Achievements; and (3) Narrative. Data tables on FAMU's financial resources, personnel, enrollment, undergraduate…

In 1997, policymakers in Kentucky enacted perhaps the most sweeping higher education reform legislation of any state in the past two decades. Kentucky's Postsecondary Education Improvement Act (House Bill 1) has been heralded by many higher education leaders across the U.S. as one of the great success stories--a rare instance when a state's…

Kentucky's public and independent postsecondary institutions are graduating another historic class in 2009. Total degrees and credentials awarded this spring increased 7 percent over last year and an impressive 40 percent in the past five years. Other highlights include: (1) Increases were seen in all sectors and at virtually all institutions.…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education developed the Graduation Rate Survey (GRS) to help institutions comply with the "Student Right-to-Know (SRTK) Act" requirements. NCES uses GRS data to calculate graduation rates within 150 percent of normal time for all students in the GRS cohort, as…

Growing accountability pressures, accompanied by a lack of readily accessible measures of institutional performance, have led to an increasing focus on graduation rates. Although previous research has illuminated myriad factors influencing students' likelihood of educational success, it has not paid adequate attention to how state contexts may…

This article reports on the trends in undergraduate economics degrees from 1991-2008. After three years of treading water, in 2008 undergraduate degrees in economics awarded by U.S. colleges and universities resumed the strong upward trajectory they exhibited from 1997 to 2004, when they rose 59 percent over seven years. The fastest growth in 2008…

U.S. colleges and universities are failing to graduate a greater number of students than in previous decades, although there has been more than a 25 percent increase in the number of students enrolling in colleges after high school graduation for the last three decades. Nevertheless, the 6-year graduation rate has been lingering around 66 percent…

Each year in the Top 100 series, researchers highlight the institutions that confer the most degrees to students of color. In this edition, they focus on the most prevalent degree conferred: the bachelor's degree. Among the types of colleges and universities that they examine--those that have Title IV status (recognized by the U.S. Department of…

This report describes the total number of Virginia Community College System (VCCS) transfer students each institution of higher education enrolled, and graduated from 2001-02 to 2005-06. The number of VCCS transfer students admitted to each higher education institution is not included because the State Council of Higher Education does not require…

This is the third Accountability Report published by the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB). This report fulfills the biennial requirement that the HECB inform the higher education and fiscal committees of the legislature of the system's progress toward goals. This report also fulfills an additional legislative requirement that calls for a…

Females and underrepresented ethnic minorities earn a small percentage of engineering and computer science bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States, earn an even smaller proportion of master's and doctoral degrees, and are underrepresented in the engineering workforce (Engineering Workforce Commission, [2006], as cited in National Science…

The United States has become more ethnically diverse, and this trend is projected to continue. Despite an increase in minority group enrollment on campus in the United States during the last decade, their rates of degree completion are not keeping pace (NCES, 2007). The question that remains to be answered is: What factors are unique to minority…

This document addresses the status of equality in access to higher education. Some of the motivating factors behind this presentation include: (1) College completion rates including rates of bachelor's degree completion are falling today, particularly among young Americans; (2) Reversing the current trend and increasing college completion has…

Since the early 1990s, the federal government has required colleges to track and report graduation rates for all first-time, full-time degree- or certificate-seeking students. The most widely used figure tracks students for 150 percent of the time they expect to take to graduate. For bachelor's degree programs, students are considered graduates if…