60 Ways to Leave a Flagship, With a Degree, Sooner

Better freshman advising and higher tuition for students who stick around too long are two of the keys that could help the University of Texas’s flagship campus raise its four-year graduation rate from 50 percent to 70 percent by 2016, according to a report released Wednesday.

After a six-month study, the Task Force on Undergraduate Graduation Rates came up with more than 60 recommendations to help the university reach that goal, starting with the class that enters this fall.

Among the suggestions:

• Creating an online tool that makes it easier for students and advisers to monitor progress toward a degree.
• Intervening more quickly to help students in academic trouble.
• Helping students commit to a major and avoid adding a second major if they can’t finish in four years.
• Enforcing a state “slacker law” that allows the university to charge out-of-state tuition to Texas students who stay on after they’ve earned 30 credit hours more than they need to graduate.
• Creating a flat rate for summer tuition that would encourage students to take more courses over the summer.
• Identifying “bottleneck courses” that fill up and throw a wrench into students’ graduation plans.

The flagship campus’s graduation rate is the highest of any public college or university in Texas, but it is below that of several peer, public research universities nationwide, officials said.

Randy L. Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, chaired the 14-member committee that interviewed students, faculty members, and advisers; reviewed data; and studied approaches taken by other universities.

Mr. Diehl said that at a time when student-loan debt has eclipsed credit-card debt, “reducing time to degree is an important and effective way of reducing the overall cost of higher education.”

The university has been under pressure from its Board of Regents, as well as conservative lobbying groups, to get students through the educational pipeline faster.

Last year the Texas Legislature passed a bill requiring students to file degree plans so that they stay focused and use their time wisely.