This report examines the ratio of part-time students to full-time students enrolled at the University of California and the California State University--and the trends in enrollment over the past five years. It also discusses the fiscal impact part-time enrollment has on both the State and the individual student. Appended are: (1) Part-time…

Examined three stages of University of Iowa students' progress to graduation: dropout versus persistence in the first year, graduation versus failure to graduate among first-year persisters, and graduation in 4 years or less versus graduation in 5 years or more. Found that college academic performance, pre-matriculation academic achievement, and…

Used the National Center for Education Statistics' postsecondary transcript file of the High School and Beyond/Sophomore Cohort to replicate findings of Adelman's "Answers in the Tool Box" study. Used event history modeling to provide additional information about how several factors affect time to bachelor's degree attainment. Findings concurred…

Reviews a variety of efforts aimed at helping graduate students with "all but dissertations" (ABDs) complete their dissertations and receive their doctoral degrees. Finds students experience major stresses in the dissertation process and in the job market. Notes increases in counseling provided, special programs, self-help books, personal coaches,…

The City University of New York is taking a new, local approach to online instruction: offering an online baccalaureate for degree completers, designed for NYC students who have "stopped out" in good academic standing and need the "any time" flexibility of asynchronous learning to finish the degree. What is especially…

Proposals in this report would result in greater freedom and flexibility in higher education at less costs and with no loss in quality. The Commission recommends that time required to earn degrees be shortened; that more rewarding alternatives to college be available to youth; and that more opportunities be provided for students to assess…

The role of summer session attendance in time-to-degree was studied in a two-phase investigation. In the first phase, a survey was used to collect data from 10 universities on the entering class of 1992 who took a degree in arts and sciences. This cohort was followed to graduation periods of less than 4 years, 4 years, 5, years, 6 years, and more…

An increasingly important performance measure for university administrators is mean time to graduation at the department level. In this study, the authors examined whether a student's major is a significant variable in predicting time to graduate. If students in one major take much longer to graduate than do those in another major, administrators…

The fastest-growing racial/ethnic groups in the nation and the SREB region -- Hispanics and African-Americans -- have below-average education attainment rates. If these gaps are not eliminated, continued increases in overall education progress will be impeded -- an unprecedented stall in the historical rise of America's education level. This…

The prevalent undergraduate major selection at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) mostly depends on the student's choice regardless of academic abilities and qualifications. Owing to the adoption of this Free Choice Method (FCM), the number of students will continue to grow and external pressures at the national level may…

Characteristics of graduates who completed bachelor's degrees within 4 years of high school graduation were compared with graduates who took longer than 4 years. Data were obtained from the Postsecondary School Transcripts Study, a supplement to the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. The sample consisted of 4,440…

This report analyzes departmental variations in time to degree and attrition in Ph.D. programs at Berkeley. An alternative hypothesis, the Ph.D. production function, is examined by cross-section econometric analysis of 28 departments. The inputs included in the production function were student variables--quality and percent males; faculty…

This manuscript summarizes an institutional research study carried out at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) concerning factors affecting time to bachelor's degree attainment. Tuition sensitivity and concern about efficient use of institutional resources point to the need for decreasing students' time-to-degree. This study enlarges upon an…

This final report describes a project of the City University of New York's Faculty Advancement Program (FAP) to encourage dissertation completion by ABD (all but dissertation) faculty at seven institutions in four northeastern states. The institutions were visited and revisited by FAP mentors in the effort to establish dissertation completion…

This paper describes some students, especially at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, who have graduated from college 3 or more years before the usual age of 22 or older. Such early graduation is not common, but neither is it extremely rare. Some young graduates seem to have been propelled through college under parental pressure, while others have…