National Data Signal College Success for Veterans

This entry was posted on 03.31.14, in Adult Learning, Data / Research, Diversity, Funding, National, Postsecondary, Students and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Veterans who used the GI Bill to go to college at some point from 2002 to 2010 appear to have graduated at rates comparable to their nonveteran peers, attended mostly public institutions, and may have taken slightly longer to complete their degrees, according to a new report.

The Million Records Project, a collaboration among Student Veterans of America, the National Student Clearinghouse, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was released [last] Monday. It is believed to be the first national analysis of post-9/11-era veterans who used their federal education benefits to enroll in college.

Over all, nearly 52 percent of the 788,915 veterans in the study earned a postsecondary degree. (“Million Records” refers to the number the groups started with; they were able to analyze 788,915.) The graduation rates in the report reflect those veterans who began using their GI Bill benefits between 2002 and 2010 and who completed a degree by June 2013, the most-recent degree information provided to researchers by the National Student Clearinghouse.

Among nonveteran students, by contrast, 54 percent of those entering college for the first time in 2007 earned a degree or certificate within six years, according to a 2013 report from the clearinghouse. <Read more.>

Via Libby Sander, The Chronicle of Higher Education.