UW System students are graduating faster and with less credits, reported a study released by the UW System Office of Policy Analysis and Research.
In 1995, the Board of Regents addressed course access problems by aiming to increase student efficiency.
The Board of Regents has set new UW System goals for the entering class of 2000-01 and will discuss the best way to achieve those goals at its meeting in Fond du Lac today.
Possible policy options include excess credit and course-repeat surcharges, increasing admission standards and specifying maximum required degree credits.
“I think they are going to revisit the question [of] should they be using broad-based policy levers that would apply across the system or should they again focus on an approach that looks at individual campus programs to achieve the target,” Frank Goldberg, associate vice president of policy analysis and research for UW System, said.
One goal the board set for the system in 1995 was to reduce the attempted credits-to-degree from 145 to 140 by 2000-01. The study indicates UW System graduates exceeded this goal, with the average credits-to-degree dropping to 137. UW-Madison’s average credits-to-degree decreased to 127.
In 1995, each campus was asked to devise a plan to achieve these goals.
“The Board has always focused on quality, and within that construct of quality the board had suggested, as has the Legislature, the extent we can get students through taking fewer credits and in a faster way,” Goldberg said. “[This is] so we might free up more resources, so we can serve more students.”
UW-Madison began providing Cross-College Advising Services and worked to lower degree requirements. The School of Business and School of Engineering are two examples of schools that have been able to decrease degree requirements.
“The provost told all of the 15 schools and colleges to examine their undergraduate curriculum and see if they could reduce their requirements so they weren’t so high, and several of the schools and colleges have done that,” said Martha Casey, assistant vice-chancellor of academic planning and analysis.
The Board of Regents also set related goals to decrease time-to-degree and increase graduation rates.
While the average six-year graduation rates for the overall UW System have increased to 60.5 percent, UW-Madison averages six-year graduation rates of 77 percent.
UW-Madison’s increasing admissions standards and emphasis on advanced-placement courses are believed to be factors that contributed to the higher graduation rates, Casey Casey.
“Madison really stands out from the rest of the system, and this is because we believe we admit better-qualified students,” he said. “The quality you come in with has a big effect on whether you graduate and how quickly.”
