In his Feb. 19 Point of View article ("Tying UNC system tuition to performance"), J.B. Buxton questioned the four-year graduation rates on UNC campuses and suggested that future state support and tuition increases should be tied to improvements in this measure of performance. While we share Buxton's commitment to improving college completion in North Carolina, focusing on a four-year rate assumes that all students will enroll full-time as freshmen and then continue full-time to graduation at the same institution. Students who transfer and graduate from another institution, students who must stop out to work for a semester or students who cannot attend full time because of work or family circumstances are considered failures using this methodology.
Because of changing demographics and attendance patterns, fewer than 70 percent of first-time UNC students now enroll full time. Yet using a more accurate measure of actual semesters enrolled, students on UNC campuses graduate on average in 8.6 semesters - or just over the equivalent of four years.
While there is no question that UNC campuses can and must do better, UNC has implemented a number of performance-based measures in recent years that are already making a real difference. We are incrementally raising minimum admission requirements to ensure that the students we enroll are better prepared to succeed academically and graduate. We have established retention and graduation goals for every campus and now restrict enrollment growth at campuses that don't meet those targets. We have put in place more intensive academic advising and counseling. We are fine-tuning our our enrollment funding model to reward and incentivize campuses that reach performance goals and make academic improvements.
