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Assessment >
2005-2006 Length of Time to Degree Length of Time to Degree Introduction The length of time it takes for a student to earn a degree varies depending on the degree they are striving for and the amount of time the student has to devote towards courses required for that degree. We are providing this information as part of our ongoing evaluation efforts to provide information for making informed decisions. Currently Mountain State University offers an associate degree, a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. In determining the length of time that our students are taking to earn a degree we started with the degrees awarded in the 2004-2005 academic year as a benchmark. The information contained in these reports is based on selecting all students whose degree confirmation date fell between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006 inclusive. Students were categorized by separating those with transfer work (transfer credit hours earned at an accredited institution) and those with no transfer work. The first time the student registered at MSU became the starting point for measuring the length of time to earn a degree. The time it took students to earn a degree was also broken down as a percentage of total degrees awarded and as a percentage of degrees awarded by type of degree for new students, transfer students and total. The supporting detail is also listed by major within degree type. Analysis The results indicate that as a percentage of total degrees, overall 36% earned their degree within two years and 79% earned their degrees within 4 years. Of those students who were working towards an associate’s degree, 32% earned it with two years while 74% earned it within four years. This means that 26% took longer than four years to earn their associates degree. It is interesting to note that 79% of the students working towards their associate’s degree with no transfer credit completed their degree within six years while 82% of those with transfer credit completed their degree in four years. It seems that with this group of graduates at the associate's level, students with transfer credit finish sooner than those without transfer credit. Of those students who were working towards their bachelor’s degree, 74% earned their degree within four years while 87% earned it within six years. The remaining 13% took longer than six years to complete their degree. It is interesting to note that 80% of the students with no transfer credit completed their degree within six years while 80% with transfer credit completed their degree within four years. It seems that with this group of graduates at the bachelor's level, students with transfer credit finish sooner than those without transfer credit. Of those students working towards their master’s degree, 75% earned their degree within two years while 99% earned it within four years. The remaining 1% took longer than ten years to complete their degree. Of those students who had no transfer work, 86% completed their master’s within two years and 96% completed it within three years. Of those students with transfer work, only 21% completed their degree in two years and 93% completed it in three years. It seems that with this group of graduates at the master's level, students without transfer work seem to finish sooner than those with transfer credit. Trend Analysis We have two years worth of data so we can begin to compare the length of time to degree from one academic year to past years. In reviewing the information for the last two years we see an overall improvement or decrease in the time it takes our students to earn their degree. The percentage of students earning their associate's degree within two years increased by 5% from 27% to 32%. The percentage earning their associate's degree within three and fours years also increased by 7% and 11% respectively. As a result of these increases, the percentage of students taking longer than four years to complete their associate's degree fell by 5%. The overall percentage of students earning their bachelor's degree within four years increased by 4% from 70% to 75%. Similarly those earning their degree within five years increased by 2%. Those earning their bachelor's degree within six years remained constant at 87% for the last two years as did the percentage taking longer than six years. The percentage of students earning their master's degree within two years increased significantly by 17% from 58% to 75%. Those earning their degree with three years also increased by 5% while those earning their master's degree within four years only increased by 3%. The percentage of student taking longer than four years decreased by 3%. Please review the detail information provided in the links below. | |
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