Why graduate in
4 years? Dean Bell explains it all...
This
fall the University of Oklahoma has initiated a campaign
to encourage students to graduate in four years, The
following is Dean Bell’s
response to an editorial appearing in the Oklahoma Daily,
OU's student newspaper.
I am writing in response to an editorial
on August 19, headlined “Don’t
rush to finish,” criticizing current efforts to encourage
students to graduate in four years. I only wish the
problem was that too many OU students were rushing to finish.
Unfortunately, the problem is that too many OU students never
finish.
The latest statistics show that only 19% of
OU’s undergraduate students graduate after
4 years and only 47% graduate
after 5 years. Nearly 46% of students who started
as freshmen have still not graduated after 6 years and a
whopping 20% of our seniors never graduate,
even though most of these students are in good academic standing
when they leave. This pattern of non-completion is very different
from colleges similar to OU nationally. Typically a college
will lose 15-20% of its students between the freshman and
sophomore years. OU is similar, losing 17% of its freshman
by the sophomore year. It’s after the freshman
year that OU is different. Whereas schools similar
to OU lose an additional 10-15% of their students between
the sophomore year and graduation, at OU we lose
an additional 29% after the freshman year, which is about
double the national average. Clearly, OU has an
upper class graduation problem.
Although we lack data to explain the abnormally high non-completion
rate of our upper class students, anecdotal evidence indicates
that students who are not focused on graduating in
a timely manner simply burn out and never graduate.
They take too few courses each semester (the average is 13
credit hours) so they can work 20 or more hours a week at
low paying “student” jobs to earn money to pay
for tuition, room and board and to support a comfortable
style of life. They eventually get married, get full-time
jobs and, after 6 or more years of college, have difficulty
finding the time and energy to finish those last few courses
needed to complete their degree. Although many describe this
practice as “working their way through school,” for
too many OU students the reality is that they are working
their way out of school and out of a diploma.
Students would be better off both academically and financially
to enroll in enough classes to graduate in 4-5 years and
borrow the money to pay for it. Sure, they will have to pay
off the debt, but by graduating sooner, they can
also enter the work force sooner and at a higher paying job,
enabling them to pay off the low interest loans after graduation. Such
students are in far better shape financially than those who
never graduate and never achieve the earning potential they
would have achieved if they had graduated.
I am not saying that students should rush through
school and miss out on the many opportunities that OU offers. I am saying
that students who take so long to complete a degree that
they eventually get tired and give up are missing out on
the many opportunities in life that await those who do
complete a degree.
OU needs a cultural change. The
attitudes embodied in the editorial “Don’t rush to finish,” are
emblematic of OU’s non-completion culture. The attitudes
of faculty, staff, parents and students all contribute to
a relaxed attitude about the importance of students’ completing
their degrees and graduating. Time is precious. Taking
more than 4-5 years to complete a degree wastes both time
and financial resources and increases the risk that these
investments will be squandered. We will only change the culture
by changing our attitudes about the importance of completing
a degree in a timely manner.
Paul B. Bell, Jr.
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences and Vice Provost for Instruction
pbell@ou.edu
Click
here for more information about the College of Arts & Science’s
advice to students on timely graduation.
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