By Donna Hemmila

UC Riverside graduates celebrate commencement.

UC is making strides in one of the key areas of student success -- graduation rates, which are steadily improving thanks in part to campus efforts to help students navigate their academic careers.

Six-year graduation rates, the standard universities use to measure the time it takes to earn a degree, rose from 76 percent in 1992 to 82 percent in 2002, according to the Student Success report presented to UC Regents at their July meeting.

Student success is one of 15 topics found in the 2009 Accountability Report, also introduced in July. This systemwide collection of quality measurements tracks the progress UC is making in key areas such as campus diversity, faculty compensation and sustainability.

The report, updated and published annually, allows the public to gauge how well UC is performing and gives university administrators and UC Regents valuable insights into where the university needs to improve. Sub-reports like the one on student success are presented at each regents meeting.

In the current environment of severe budget cutbacks, having a baseline of indicators will help UC track the real impacts of the cuts.

"The most important metric of student success is graduation rates," said Anne Machung, director of accountability in the academic planning department at the UC Office of the President. "The standard is the six-year measurement, and ours has been going up over time. More importantly, four-year graduation rates have gone up even faster. So we're graduating students more quickly."

Campus programs target success Each UC campus has advising, tutoring and support services aimed at helping students get the most benefit from their university years. At UCLA, the Program Leading to Undergraduate Success was designed to do just that. PLUS, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, serves low-income, disabled and first-generation college students. Part of the campus's Academic Advancement Program, PLUS accepts 200 freshmen each fall with a goal of helping them get through a rigorous four years at UCLA and to go on to graduate schools and professions. "That first year is so critical, especially for first-generation students," said Kehaulani Vaughn, acting PLUS coordinator. Once a first-generation student herself, Vaughn understands the pressures students face in adjusting to university life. If they are the first in their families to go to a university, they don't have a support system to guide them through the academic world. "I think it's overwhelming coming to such a prestigious institution as UCLA and such a huge institution," Vaughn said. PLUS students sign a contract to participate in academic skills workshops and tutoring. They are matched with a full-time counselor and a peer counselor who keep contact with them and offer support if students are facing problems. Vaughn believes that having a structured program like PLUS contributes to UCLA having a one of the highest four-year graduation rates in the UC system at 67 percent. In the fall, she said, UCLA is extending PLUS to a four-year program. Peer advising programs are an important part of these campus retention efforts. "Not all students know how to graduate," said Comron Roodsari, a UC Irvine senior. Roodsari has been both a peer advising customer and adviser. Now he is the student coordinator of the Peer Academic Advising Program at UC Irvine. Last year, he said, the program provided 157,625 advising sessions, helping students figure out what classes to take, how to meet major requirements and referring them to student services. Peer advisers hold office hours and meet with students in the dorms, which Roodsari believes is a more comfortable setting for students reluctant to ask for help. "I've personally felt that feeling, that looming idea that I have to go to a counselor," he said. "This peer-to-peer level really helps." At UC Berkeley, which has the highest graduation rates in the UC system (69 percent graduate in four years), there are many ways counselors make themselves available, said Robert Holtermann, a counselor in the Letters and Science Undergraduate Advising Department. The Finding Your Way program helps freshmen and first-semester transfer students in the college adjust. "The idea is if you have a good start, you'll have a better finish," Holtermann said. Advising efforts at UC Berkeley target diverse populations, Holtermann said, such as student athletes and disabled students who can take advantage of programs geared to their circumstances. "There are so many ways to get advice on this campus," he said.

Among freshmen who enrolled at UC campuses in 1992, 36 percent had graduated in four years. For those entering in 2004, the percentage that graduated systemwide in four years rose to 59 percent.

By comparison, among the freshman who, in 1999, entered U.S. public universities who are members of the Association of American Universities, 46 percent graduated in four years and 74 percent in six years.

The UC graduation rates for transfer students also are rising: Fifty-two percent of community college transfers graduate in two years and 86 percent in four years.

Two-year graduation rates have increased from 39 percent for transfer students entering in 1997 to 52 percent for students in 2006.

Several factors contribute to UC's rising graduation rates.

"Academic preparation," said Dan Greenstein, vice provost of academic planning. "People are better prepared, and we're more selective. Fees are going up and no one wants to stay longer than they need to. And campuses have all been incredibly responsive to putting together a whole bunch of support mechanisms to help students succeed."

At the same time, the student graduation statistics show that some groups are lagging behind. For example, African American and Latino men have lower graduation rates. Those statistics point out the need for more support services for those students.

The effects of budget cuts on graduation rates may take a few years to show up in the data, Greenstein said. But fewer faculty will likely mean it will take longer for students to get the classes they need to graduate.

"How this is all going to balance out in the future is unknown," Greenstein said. "You could envision a scenario where students get through more quickly but with less of an education."

The student success element of the Accountability Report also includes retention rates, student body demographics, degrees awarded by discipline and post-graduation plans. It contains both systemwide and individual campus data and comparisons with other public and private universities.

In looking ahead to improve on the student success data, the academic planning department hopes to do a fall survey of UC graduates to determine what kind of work they do and where they go when they leave UC.

"As we begin to know more about that, we'll be better able to document the contributions UC makes to the state and the nation," Greenstein said. "I suspect their contributions are very high, but we need to prove it."

Read the full UC Accountability Report at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/accountability.

Give feedback on the report.

Donna Hemmila is editor of Our University.