The University of Hawaii at Hilo says efforts to improve four-year graduation rates are beginning to pay off.
The University of Hawaii at Hilo says efforts to improve four-year graduation rates are beginning to pay off.
The campus reports 18.7 percent of first-time, full-time freshmen who enrolled in fall 2012 had graduated by spring 2016, its highest four-year graduation rate in recent years. In 2015, 13.6 percent of those freshmen graduated on time.
That number was 11 percent in 2014 and dipped as low as 8.2 percent among fall 2007 freshmen.
“We’re very excited about the gains that we’re making,” said Farrah-Marie Gomes, UH-Hilo’s vice chancellor for student affairs. “We believe these are the results from initiatives the campus has been focusing on the last several years which are directly impacting graduation rates. We’re only starting to see these results now because they have been in play for a while, before we truly saw what the results were going to be.”
The school has ramped up its advising services, including adding a requirement in 2013 that all freshmen meet with an adviser. That’s hoped to help those incoming students get “set on the right track,” Gomes said.
The campus also encourages students to take a full 15-credit course load each semester — an effort called “15 to Finish.” It also implemented a “freshmen guaranteed scheduling” initiative in 2011 that guarantees spots for freshmen in courses required for their major, Gomes said. And UH-Hilo added more spots in popular courses which get easily “bottle-necked,” she said.
There’s no one reason a student doesn’t graduate on time, though it’s often because they change majors, switch to part-time status or take too many courses that are not required for their degree.
Statistics show the longer it takes students to take courses, the less likely they are to complete their degree, Gomes said. About 42 percent of the Hilo campus’ first-time, full-time freshmen graduate within eight years, according to the most recent data available.
“We know the longer it takes to get to completion, retention becomes an issue at that point,” Gomes said. “So we’re still striving for significant increases to come in the first four years because of that factor.”
Gomes said the campus is mapping out a future graduation rate target goal but “absolutely expects graduation rates to increase” in the coming years as its current efforts continue.
“We’re seeing (improvement) as we’re continually making adjustments to what we’re doing,” she said. “It’s exciting for us.”
The four-year graduation rate at UH-Manoa was 32.1 percent among fall 2012 freshmen, up from 27.9 percent the year prior. Nationally, it’s about 34 percent at public colleges.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson @hawaiitribune -herald.com.