Graduation Rate Reaches All-Time High

Two new student success programs are already helping U of A students graduate, contributing to a record six-year graduation rate above 73%. Additionally, the four-year graduation rate also reached an all-time high above 62%.

The Student Success Office worked to help students reach graduation through the new Graduation Pathways Working Group and the Mission 6-Year Graduation Project. These initiatives were created to support the University of Arkansas’ goal of reaching an 80% graduation as part of its 150 Forward Reaching Higher Strategic Plan.

To date, these initiatives and the university’s commitment to student success have helped about 102 more students complete graduation requirements, which has been instrumental in raising the university’s six-year graduation rate from its previous record of 70.90% to 73.07%, an increase of 2.17 percentage points from year-to-year.  These results represent the highest year-to-year increase in six-year graduation rate in the last 5 years.

“Raising the graduation rate more than 2 percentage points in one year is a tremendous accomplishment and moves us one step closer to reaching an 80% graduation rate,” said Deborah Korth, senior associate vice provost for student success and academic excellence. “These students worked hard to reach this milestone, and I’m proud of their dedication and the Mission 6 project team. We couldn’t have achieved this success without the partnership of the Graduation Pathways Working Group and the strong collaboration across the university.”

The Graduation Pathways Working Group is comprised of representatives from colleges and units across campus, including advisors, faculty, academic coaches, student affairs and registrar’s office staff, financial aid professionals and treasurer's office staff. The group works to identify students who are close to graduation but have stopped out, are struggling academically or have transferred to professional schools without completing their undergraduate degrees. The Graduation Pathways Working Group also identifies consistent barriers to graduation and investigates policy and procedure changes that may remove those barriers for future students.

Once these students are identified, a smaller team, known as the Mission 6-Year Graduation Project team, with representatives from every academic college supported by the registrar’s office and Division of Student Affairs, provides targeted, individualized support to help these students progress towards graduation and earn their degrees. The project began last fall to support students who were freshmen in the fall of 2020 and 2021. Additionally, as part of this project, the Financial Aid Office provided support to students who have financial need based on their personal experience with the COVID pandemic. The Mission 6-Year Graduation Project team will continue to work with more students this fall and spring.

“The Mission 6 project team has been incredibly successful this year in helping these students graduate and start their careers,” said Jen Caba, who was the former director of learning innovation and assessment for the Student Success Center and transitioned earlier this year to the senior director for retention and learning lab retention for the Walton College of Business.

“With the help of the Graduation Pathways Working Group, we’ve been able to pinpoint the exact challenges each of these students have experienced, which allows us to tailor our support to meet their specific needs,” Caba added. “This kind of support not only helps these students complete their degrees, but it also allows us to continually improve and refine the resources we provide to our students in the future.”

The four-year graduation rate jumped to a record 62.22%, an increase of 4.13 percentage points from year-to-year.

What’s the Impact of Increasing the U of A’s Graduation Rate?

• Every one percentage point increase equates to about 70 more students graduating annually, based on an incoming class of 7,000. And every additional student who graduates is better prepared to enter the workforce and start a successful career, strengthening communities across the state while driving economic impact.
• The impact will be multiplied by 10 when the university increases its graduation rate from 70% to 80%, which will result in an additional 700 students graduating every year based on an incoming class of 7,000.
• While 80% is a stretch goal, the university believes it is attainable due to record incoming GPAs, record graduation rates and record scholarship funding to help students overcome financial obstacles, combined with other initiatives to enhance student success included in the activation of 150 Forward Reaching Higher. 
• It took the university 25 years to increase its graduation rate from 55.3% (2000) to 70.9% (2025), but the U of A is focused on accelerating that timeline to reach 80% much sooner.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $3 billion to Arkansas’ economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.