July 23, 2012
In Nina Kadjar’s sophomore year at the University of Texas, her mother ran across a webpage describing a new source of funds to pay for school. A little-known state program, called B-on-Time, could provide her daughter a zero-interest annual loan of between $6,000 and $7,000, with payments to start after graduation. That would make a significant dent in the $24,000 a year that Nina Kadjar needed for tuition and expenses. But the program had an even better twist—if she could get her degree in four years and maintain a B average, the loan would be completely forgiven.
As the federal government and states look for ways to control rising tuition and student debt, they’re focusing increasingly on schools’ “degree productivity,” or how often and how quickly they move students to graduation. States are experimenting with how to help more students matriculate, and a few are trying something new—using the power of the purse to motivate them to get their bachelor’s degrees in four years.
Productivity is the new frontier in higher education. Back in the 1940s after the G.I. Bill passed, the focus was on ensuring access to college, says Stan Jones of Complete College America, nonprofit that advocates reforms designed to graduate more students. But with average tuition up 63 percent just since 2000, the conversation has turned from access to efficiency, with students in need of more financial aid than ever at a time when the federal and state budgets are in dire straits. “If we could get more folks to complete on time, we could make college much more affordable for families and lessen taxpayer costs,” says a source at the U.S. Department of Education.
Jones says universities and colleges need to do more than get people into school—they must turn out graduates, and quickly. In 1972, students took 4.3 years on average to get a bachelor’s degree; when a followup study was done in 1992, that had increased to 4.6 years. Today, the government uses a different metric to calculate graduation time, but data released earlier this year show that today’s four-year graduation rate across colleges is just 38 percent. “You always see [schools’] press releases about how many students they enrolled in the fall,” says Jones. “But they never tell you their graduation rates.”
There’s evidence that at least part of the increase in graduation times stems from students applying themselves less than in the past. A 2009 paper by two economists at the University of California found steep declines in the average weekly study time of full-time college students at four-year colleges—from about 24 hours per week in 1961 to about 14 hours per week in the 2000’s.
But many students are also working significant hours to pay for school and so find it hard to take a full load—45 percent of students at 4-year schools work more than 20 hours a week. Working that amount hurts their grades, according to one study. A 2010 report by the Southern Regional Education Board also documented schools’ failure to offer courses in a workable sequence. And students are taking too many credits—Complete College America’s data show that they’re graduating with 136.5 credits instead of the 120 they normally need for a four-year degree. That could be because at flagship schools like the University of Massachusetts, many students change majors or graduate with more than one.
Read more at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/07/24/Colleges-Pay-Students-to-Graduate-Faster.aspx#Ud2Mpw6o3KmWuQ12.99
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