Professor Van Ry

Despite aggressive efforts to push more students through to the finish line, college-completion rates remained unchanged this year, with 54 percent of those entering college for the first time in 2007 earning a degree or certificate within six years, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported on Thursday.

The center’s report tracks students even if they transfer to a different college, sector, or state. It offers an alternative to the federal government’s college-completion measure, which doesn’t count transfer or part-time students.

As in last year’s report from the clearinghouse, the new data show that working students, parents, and others who could attend only part time were the least likely to graduate within six years.

Only 22 percent of students who attended exclusively part time earned credentials within six years, compared with 76 percent of those enrolled full time. <Read more.>

Via Katherine Mangan, The Chronicle of Higher Education.