Colleges are facing pressure from politicians and the public to improve student outcomes. Fewer than four in 10 first-time, full-time undergraduates who started at a four-year institution in 2006 finished in four years, the most recent federal data show. Fewer than six in 10 did so in six years.
The Problem
Low graduation rates
When students take a long time to finish their degrees, college resources are stretched on services for those lingering in the pipeline, and student debt grows. When students drop out, they leave without the increased earning potential that comes with a degree.
The challenge to improve graduation rates is particularly acute at institutions like Georgia Regents University, one of the state’s four public comprehensive research institutions. The college has a relatively high freshman acceptance rate—76 percent this fall—which tends to correlate with lower graduation rates.
To complete college in four years at Georgia Regents, students need to complete an average of 15 credits each semester if they are taking classes only during the academic year and not in summer. In the fall of 2012, only 8 percent of the university’s freshman class of about 900 students even attempted 15 credits or more. Only 4 percent completed that many. That meant the overwhelming majority of students were, from the start, not on track to finish in four years.
Students would typically take 12 credit hours each semester to qualify as full time for financial-aid purposes, said Julie Goley, director of career services at Georgia Regents. The university’s large number of local students, she said, also complicates matters.
“They were taking it very slow and trying to fit it in with life, and life would get in the way,” Ms. Goley said. “We knew that we had to do something very tactical and specific to address that.”
The Approach
Aggressive, centralized advising
The message, at first, puzzled Kiayra Erwin, a sophomore at Georgia Regents who is studying biology. She received an email a few weeks into this semester from the advising office. It said there were concerns about her calculus class and asked her to meet with an adviser. Ms. Erwin had recently scored a 53 out of 100 on a quiz, and she was struggling. She didn’t think anyone was paying attention. “I was like, ‘Why am I getting this?’” she said.
The email to Ms. Erwin is part of a new effort by Georgia Regents officials to improve the university’s graduation rates. Called 4 Years 4 U, the program is intrusive by design. A year ago, the advising office started tracking freshmen and sophomores whose academic patterns or performance, such as skipping class or doing poorly on quizzes or tests, raised red flags.
Just three weeks into each semester, the advising office sends emails to faculty members asking them to respond if any freshmen or sophomores in their classes were struggling with things like attendance or tests. The students whom professors identify are then contacted by phone, text, or email and are asked to meet with an adviser who can guide them to resources.
In Ms. Erwin’s case, an adviser guided her to the Math Assistance Center.
“The personalized attention really builds the bond between the student and the adviser,” said Katherine Sweeney, director of the college’s’ Academic Advisement Center. “Students like being paid attention to.”
To take its new approach, the university restructured how it advises freshmen and sophomores. Eight academic advisers who had been in different parts of the university are now part of a centralized advising office, which Ms. Sweeney leads. The university also hired six new advisers so it could be more proactive in reaching out to students who need help.
Allocating money to new staff members can be a tough sell given tight budgets. But administrators said improving advising was central to their key goal of improving graduation rates. “We really did try to prioritize this as a need,” said Carol J. Rychly, vice president for academic and faculty affairs at Georgia Regents.
As part of the 4 Years 4 U program, all freshmen are also asked to sign a pledge that states they will try to take at least 15 credits each semester so they stay on track to earn their degree in four years. The message that 15 credits is what is needed each semester is repeated often, starting at orientation so that parents hear it, too.
The Challenges
Faculty concerns and student workloads
The new advising structure has led some faculty members to wonder whether 15 credits might be too much for some students. The university takes pride in, as one professor put it, educating the “real world": the single mother, the person holding a full-time job, the older adult. For many of those students, a smaller course load might be best.
“They’ve trained these advisers to really push these kids to take 15 hours minimum,” said Andy Hauger, a physics professor. “If a student told me they were working 20 or 30 hours a week and driving in from Waynesboro, which takes 45 minutes, I’d tell them they probably shouldn’t take 15 credits because they’re not going to be successful.”
Mr. Hauger said he’s also worried that the new advising structure for freshmen and sophomores has lost the personal touch because of the centralization. He knows fewer underclassmen in the department because he no longer advises them. He and his faculty colleagues, he said, know more about the opportunities available to students in their programs than does an adviser in the centralized office and can better explain what it’s like to be a physicist or chemist.
Administrators want to keep the faculty closely involved with students but see their roles differently from how Mr. Hauger sees them. Professors should see themselves more as mentors, officials say, while the staff of the advising office focuses more on scheduling and giving students road maps to timely degree completion. The advising office works with students who have up to 60 credits, so juniors and seniors are still advised by faculty members.
The new system can be a benefit for professors, since it frees up time. Mr. Hauger acknowledged the convenience of the new structure. During periods of heavy advising, he might have spent up to 20 hours over a 10-day period on advising students. Now he spends far less time because he advises only juniors and seniors.
He also said the new advising structure has been effective at increasing the number of credits incoming freshmen take. “In the past,” Mr. Hauger said, “we maybe didn’t push them enough.”
The Results
More freshmen attempt 15 credits
The true test of 4 Years 4 U’s effectiveness will come in May 2017, when administrators will see how many of the students who began in the fall of 2013 graduate in four years. But administrators say preliminary results show the advising structure is working.
Last fall, the first year of the 4 Years 4 U program, 71 percent of freshmen attempted 15 or more credits, compared with 8 percent the previous year. This fall, 90 percent of freshmen attempted 15 credits or more.
Students are also completing more credit hours at greater rates. At the end of the 2013-14 academic year, the proportion of freshmen who completed 30 or more credits, and therefore became sophomores, increased to 40 percent from 15 percent the year before.
Students like Ms. Erwin, who failed an early quiz, also report satisfaction with the new advising structure. After heeding the advice of the adviser who guided her to tutoring resources, she received an A in her latest calculus quiz.
Charlie L. Nutt, the executive director of the National Academic Advising Association and an assistant professor of education at Kansas State University, said that universities are paying more attention to how they deliver advising than ever before because of increased pressure to improve student outcomes.
Many universities, including Florida Atlantic and Florida International Universities, now have a similar advising model, in which first- and second-year students are advised by people working in a centralized unit, Mr. Nutt said.
“They’re recognizing the value of academic advising to student persistence and graduating in a timely manner,” he said.
What Works is a new series that looks at how colleges are tackling common problems. Got an idea? Let us know. Contact feedback@chronicle.com
