In this qualitative study, adult students placed in an eight-week, closed-cohort GED preparation program were introduced to blended learning while attending in-person instruction five days a week during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants had the opportunity to receive their curriculum in a blended format, which provided some convenience for the…

In this study, we investigated how environmental, cognitive, and demographic variables influenced students' ability to graduate from a 4-year university in 4 years. Specifically, we examined how behaviors related to social cognitive career theory (i.e., self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and academic goals) were influenced by contextual…

California is projected to fall 1.1 million bachelor's degrees short of economic demand by 2030. Expanding access to higher education could help shrink the gap, but California also needs to boost the likelihood that students who enroll in college will stay on track to earn degrees. The share of adults with bachelor's degrees is slightly larger in…

Australia is following a global trend in doctoral education policy to improve PhD completion times and rates. It is widely believed that accurate data on PhD completion are needed to assess the success of reforms and drive changes in doctoral education. In this article, new national completion data (2005-2018) provided by the Australian Department…

Graduate and doctoral schools around the world struggle to shorten the long time to degree and to prevent high dropout rates. While most of previous research studied individual determinants of PhD completion, we analyze the impact of two structural reforms of the doctoral program on thesis completion at a selective European graduate school.…

In this study, we identified factors influencing completion rates (graduation) of undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We used hierarchical, logistic, and linear regression models to analyze the data and found significant predictor variable interactions across various underrepresented versus…

This report examines transfer student pathways and performance from British Columbia (BC) Transfer System institutions into BC's public research-intensive universities: Royal Roads University (RRU), Simon Fraser University (SFU), Thompson Rivers University (TRU), University of British Columbia (UBC), University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC),…

This brief examines the impact of using a system based on multiple metrics that requires institutions to pass three out of four thresholds for student loan default, student loan repayment, program completion, and postcollege earnings. Currently, a very high loan default rate is the only student outcome that disqualifies institutions from the…

As the eleventh in the Completing College series, this report updates the six-year college completion rates nationally and by state, by tracking the enrollment and completion outcomes for the fall 2016 cohort of beginning college students through June 2022. The report also features national eight-year completion outcomes for the fall 2013 and fall…

Academic dismissal policies are increasingly implemented to promote academic success, with existing empirical evidence mostly restricted to short-run outcomes. This study examines long-term academic outcomes of academic dismissal for two cohorts (N=1707) of first-year bachelor students in Economics and Business at a Dutch university. Using…

The study sought to determine whether students with disabilities are disadvantaged because of state and institutional performance-based policies providing incentives for 4-year graduation. In a longitudinal study of 32,187 students at a Midwestern Research University, the retention and graduation rates, and mean years to graduation, of students…

The study investigated the relationship between timely graduation and academic and institutional factors for a cohort of Engineering students at a South African university. The sample was restricted to 1595 incoming students beginning during 2009-2011 who were tracked to 2016, allowing for an eight-year graduation period for the initial cohort.…

There is a national push for college completion. For some students, graduation may be stymied by financial status, in addition to other factors. The current study was conducted through secondary analysis of matching archival datasets from select East Texas institutions on full-time, first-time-in-college students with no previous college…

In this article, I utilize a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effects of Tulsa Achieves--a prevalent and understudied type of tuition-free college program. In contrast to concerns regarding tuition-free community college suppressing bachelor's degree attainment, I find that Tulsa Achieves increased the likelihood of transferring to…

Transfer articulation agreements are employed by institutions of higher education and state legislatures alike to improve transfer efficiency between two-year and four-year institutions. These agreements often aim both to increase transfer rates and baccalaureate degree completion and to decrease time to degree. Studies exploring the efficacy of…