A Salute to UT’s Rising Graduation Rate

In Perspectives by Joe Sullivanleave a COMMENT

200270000-001Augmented student supports that the University of Tennessee has put in place these past few years are paying off in a dramatic increase in graduation rates.

Over the past five years, the percentage of entering students who graduate within six years has risen from 60.5 percent to 69.3 percent, and the four-year graduation rate has jumped even more, from 30.6 percent to 42.8 percent.

These gains have earned the university what’s known as the Trailblazer Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities for “Most Visible Progress” in raising student graduation and retention rates.

Spearheading the effort have been UT’s Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Sally McMillan, and Associate Provost for Student Success Ruth Darling. But they are quick to credit a collaboration involving the faculties of all nine of the university’s undergraduate colleges, their student advisory staffs, and UT’s Office of Information Technology.

Credit also goes to Chancellor Jimmy Cheek for directing more resources to the effort during some very lean budget years in the wake of the Great Recession. These included hiring 20 additional student advisors along with adjunct faculty to teach more sections of courses identified as “bottlenecks” and a multifaceted systems development effort to create what is known as uTrack. One spur was the 2010 enactment of the Complete College Tennessee Act, which modified the state’s higher-education funding formula to reward institutions for enhanced student outcomes rather than just enlarged enrollment.

uTrack is akin to an academic GPS navigator guiding students toward their graduation. Darling explains that, “It provides very focused attention on how students are progressing in any given curriculum and have the courses that they need to complete in the right sequence in a timely way.”

Prior to each term, every student and his or her advisors get a computerized report showing whether the student is “on track” or “off track,” based on completed course results and course selection for that term. If it’s “off track,” Darling says, “Advisors have an indication of what the trouble may be and meet with those students to adjust their schedules. Too often in the past we didn’t know what was happening until it was too late.”

While uTrack does generate a suggested list of courses for every student each semester, Darling insists the system isn’t intended to regiment them. “We want students to explore, and uTrack isn’t meant to deny them that.” She also acknowledges that, “At first there was a fear that they were being watched. But actually students like to know where they stand and to have a continuing conversation about the path they are on and whether that’s a path where they are going to be successful.” In some cases, that conversation may lead to a change in majors or even career choices.

Since uTrack wasn’t implemented until 2013, McMillan believes it will contribute to further gains in graduation rates in the years ahead. Another innovation that same year which should help was to start charging incoming students tuition based on a 15 credit-hour course load, up from 12, and commensurate with getting the 120 credit hours typically needed for graduation in four years. At least partly as a result, the percentage of freshmen taking 15 hours or more rose to 64 percent this past year from 52 percent in 2010.

McMillan is hesitant to predict a graduation rate for 2017 when both uTrack and the 15-hour tuition base will hit the four-year mark. But by 2020, she foresees the six-year rate rising to 77 percent, another dramatic gain.

The rise to 69 percent over the past five years has lifted UT from near the bottom in the Southeastern Conference to the middle of the pack. But it’s still far short of the SEC’s two state university front-runners: Florida, at 87 percent, and Georgia, at 82 percent.

After five years of accomplishment, McMillan is leaving her administrative post to return to teaching and research as a professor of advertising and public relations.

“Sally has made incredible contributions while she served as vice provost, and I expect she will make many more when she returns to her role as a professor,” Darling says.

Joe Sullivan is the former owner and publisher of Metro Pulse (1992-2003) as well as a longtime columnist covering local politics, education, development, business, and tennis. His new column, Perspectives, covers much of the same terrain.

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