University System of Georgia Strategic Plan

Strategic Goal One:
Renew excellence in undergraduate education to meet students’ 21st century educational needs.

The USG will improve graduation and retention rates by institution and sector.

Develop and implement programs strategically designed to improve the retention and graduation rates in the USG.

Each academic department will have a plan for improving student retention in the majors.
All 34 institutions that serve freshmen will have first-year experience programs.
All 35 institutions will ensure adequate upper-division course availability.
All 35 institutions will have student employment offices.

Retention rate for USG institutions by sector and overall, including institutional average and Systemwide average, from fall 2006 to fall 2007:

Graduation rate for 2001 cohort for baccalaureate degree programs is 50.79% institution-specific and 57.79% Systemwide.

Graduation rate for 2004 cohort for associate degree programs is 12.41% institution-specific and 12.82% Systemwide.

2008 Target	2008 Actual
Inventory first-year experience programs.	Completed.
Conduct NSSE and CCSSE surveys.	Completed.
Indentify core courses with high failure rates.	Completed.
Departments to develop plan for improving retention.	Moved to 2009.
Evaluate RPG programs from five pilot institutions.	Moved to 2009.
Participate in National Student Clearinghouse to track students.	In process.
Establish new retention and graduation targets for each institution.	Completed.

First Year Retention Rates, Fall 2007 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities	90.4	93.0
Regional universities	76.9	85.8
State universities	74.4	80.8
State colleges	58.4	64.9
Two-year colleges	58.1	64.8
University System	73.0	78.9

Six-Year Bachelor's Graduation Rates, Fall 2002 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities	68.4	73.2
Regional universities	43.2	54.1
State universities	34.3	42.6
State colleges	11.5	17.7
University System	49.3	56.7

Three-Year Associate's Graduation Rates, Fall 2005 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
State colleges	12.88	13.14
Two-year colleges	9.61	9.78
University System	11.06	11.28

2009 Target	2009 Actual
Departments develop a plan for improving retention and graduation rates.	Plans to be presented winter and spring 2010.
Participate in National Student Clearinghouse to track students.	Data match completed. See 2010 target for completion. Participation in NSC continues.

First Year Retention Rates, Fall 2008 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities	90.8	93.7
Regional universities	77.5	86.2
State universities	73.3	80.4
State colleges	59.9	67.0
Two-year colleges	58.0	64.3
University System	72.7	78.9

Six-Year Bachelor's Graduation Rates, Fall 2003 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities	72.9	77.0
Regional universities	45.6	55.7
State universities	35.8	44.6
State colleges	16.2	25.7
University System	51.6	58.9

Three-Year Associate's Graduation Rates, Fall 2006 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
State colleges	11.5	11.7
Two-year colleges	9.1	9.5
University System	10.3	10.5

2010 Target	2010 Actual
Analyze NSSE and CCSSE surveys and write report.	In progress. Analysis begun.
Departments to develop a plan for improving retention.	Institutions developed three-year plans to improve retention and graduation and presented them to Regents' Task Force on Graduation.
Evaluate RPG programs from five pilot institutions.	Evaluations conducted by institutions. Results pending.
Use information from participation in National Student Clearinghouse to track students.	Ongoing. Assisted many institutions with National Student Clearinghouse matches so they can track their own students. System-level analysis in progress.
Evaluate progress towards 2014 retention and graduation targets.	Retention and graduation data available for Fall 2009, Fall 2004, and Fall 2007 cohorts available beginning August/September 2010.

First Year Retention Rates, Fall 2009 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities	91.2	93.9
Regional universities	74.9	84.9
State universities	72.7	79.7
State colleges	58.1	64.1
Two-year colleges	55.1	60.6
University System	71.0	77.0

Six-Year Bachelor's Graduation Rates, Fall 2004 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities	72.0	76.3
Regional universities	43.3	54.6
State universities	37.2	46.2
State colleges	13.9	20.4
University System	51.6	59.2

Three-Year Associate's Graduation Rates, Fall 2007 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
State colleges	10.7	11.0
Two-year colleges	9.9	10.3
University System	10.2	10.5

2011 Target	2011 Actual
Conduct NSSE and CCSSE surveys to stay on 3-year rotation.
Analyze patterns of courses with high failure rates.

First Year Retention Rates, Fall 2010 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities
Regional universities
State universities
State colleges
Two-year colleges
University System

Six-Year Bachelor's Graduation Rates, Fall 2005 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities
Regional universities
State universities
State colleges
University System

Three-Year Associate's Graduation Rates, Fall 2008 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
State colleges
Two-year colleges
University System

2012 Target	2012 Actual
Evaluate institutional progress on improving retention and graduation rates.

First Year Retention Rates, Fall 2011 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities
Regional universities
State universities
State colleges
Two-year colleges
University System

Six-Year Bachelor's Graduation Rates, Fall 2006 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
Research universities
Regional universities
State universities
State colleges
University System

Three-Year Associate's Graduation Rates, Fall 2009 Cohort
Sector	Institution-Specific Rate	Systemwide Rate
State colleges
Two-year colleges
University System