It is too early to gauge the effectiveness of The University of Alabama’s graduation campaign Finish in Four, a UA official said, but data shows that UA students are graduating on-time above the national average.
“Since the Finish in Four campaign started in 2011, there hasn’t been sufficient time to see changes in the graduation rates,” said Judy Bonner, Executive Vice President and Provost of the University.
According to “College Completion,” a website sponsored by the Chronicle of Higher Education, The University of Alabama has a four-year graduation rate of 37.9 percent compared to the national average of 31.3 percent for four-year public universities. The University’s six-year graduation rate is 63.7 percent, over twelve points higher than the national average.
Finish in Four, a campaign designed to encourage four-year graduation, kicked off in 2011. It utilizes DegreeWorks to help students monitor their credit hours and plan semester course loads.
DegreeWorks offers many tools to help students navigate course selection and understand course requirements, Bonner said.
“If students fully utilized the tools available in DegreeWorks, the time students spend with academic advisors could be used for career planning rather than course scheduling,” she said.
“DegreeWorks is a great software and enhances the advising process, but it doesn’t replace advising,” said Rebekah Welch, director of the Office of Nursing Student Services. “DegreeWorks had made it easier to help students with life-type advising. Advising is more than just course selection.”
With less time needed for course selection, Welch said she can now devote more attention to advising students on careers.
One common hindrance she finds to on-time graduation, though, is students having to work.
“So many students have to work today,” she said. “A student that has to work 20 to 30 hours per week is not going to be able to take 16 to 17 hours per semester.”
A minimum of 15 hours per semester is required to gain 120 hours in only eight semesters, Bonner said.
Aaron Shaw, a senior majoring in psychology and biology, came to the University with 35 credits after taking Advanced Placement courses in high school.
“I came to [the University] as a sophomore,” he said. “I will be graduating with five years worth of credit.”
Shaw had credits in courses ranging from government and biology to English, but said he could have graduated on time without AP credits.
“It would be possible,” he said,” but it would take more planning. I would have had to do it from the beginning.”
Corey Sherman, a senior majoring in music education, relied on summer online classes to stay on target. Although he is in his fourth year at the Capstone, his degree demands a semester-long student teaching internship after completion of coursework, which he cannot complete in four years.
“Many of my classmates enter with AP credits and easily graduate in four years,” Sherman said. “I’ve ignored the four year push to a large extent. I’m planning on finishing in four and a half years.”
