A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has found that College completion rates have reached an all-time high during the 12 years the center has tracked trends in degree attainments. The percentage of students who began college in the fall of 2018 and earned a credential within six years rose to 61.1 percent. The rate was 57.7 percent for the group of students who entered college in 2010.
“Higher completion rates are welcome news for colleges and universities still struggling to regain enrollment levels from before the pandemic,” said Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “Even as fewer students are starting college this fall, more of those who started back in 2018 have stayed enrolled through to the finish.”
The rise in completion rates can be explained by a combination of factors. First, there has been a reduction in student dropout rates. Second, public two-year colleges have seen an increase in the number of students earning degrees.
But the news is not so rosy for Black students. For Black students who enrolled in 2018, 43.8 percent had earned a degree or other credential within six years. This is more than 17 percentage points below the overall rate and 24.8 percentage points below the rate for Whites. The college completion rates for Black was down more than two percentage points from the 2017 matriculating group and was the lowest percentage since the entering class of 2011.
