March 27, 2002

 

 

VICE PROVOST CHRISTINA MASLACH

 

Based on your request, the Office of Planning and Analysis has pulled retention and graduation rate data by gender and ethnicity from the American Association of Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE).  The AAUDE uses data that institutions submit through IPEDS, the annual data collection effort of the National Center for Education Statistics.  Thus it appears to be a reliable source of traditional retention and graduation rate data allowing peer institution comparison.

 

In January, the Office of Student Research (OSR) reported to the Chancellor’s Cabinet that retention and graduation rates have improved significantly over time.  The AAUDE data shows the same trends and findings, but the figures are slightly different from OSR’s due to methodological differences. 

 

Attached you will find AAUDE trend data for the Berkeley campus for those years that are available through this source.  In addition, peer comparison data for the most recent cohort (Fall 1994) is displayed.  Due to AAUDE protocol, we have removed the peer institution names from the report, but we selected those universities that mirror the public ones in our Performance Metrics project (i.e., University of Illinois at Urbana, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, UCLA and UC San Diego).  None of the private peer institutions have shared this data with AAUDE, however, based on the Performance Metrics project data, the privates averaged 98% for first year retention, and 84%, 90% and 95% graduation rates for the fourth, fifth and sixth years.

 

Below is a summary of some of the main points we’ve found based on this data, accompanied by a series of charts.

 

Retention Rates

 

UC Berkeley’s first, second and third year retention rates have improved slightly over time.  First year rates have always exceeded 93% and are now over 95%.  The second and third year rates are about 90% and 85%, respectively.  Based on gender, female retention rates are higher than those of their male counterparts.  By ethnicity, first year retention rates are all above 90%.  However, second and third year retention rates drop below 90% except for Asians in the second year, and retention rates for Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Non-Resident Alien students in some cases drop below 80%. 

 

Overall retention rates are relatively comparable across the group of peers, as are rates for each gender.  By ethnicity, UC Berkeley did better than several peer institutions in first year retention rates, however, our second and third year retention rates fall more steeply than several of the peers for Native Americans, Blacks, and Whites. 

 

Graduation Rates

 

UC Berkeley’s graduation rates have improved over time to 44% for fourth year, 75% for fifth year, and 82% for sixth year.  We consistently experience a large increase between the fourth and fifth years.  UCB’s female graduation rates are higher than their male counterparts, and there are significant differences among ethnic groups.  Asian, White, Unknown, and Non-Resident Alien students, tend to graduate sooner and more often than the underrepresented minorities.  Among those ethnicities, graduation rates are higher for Hispanics and Native Americans, followed by Blacks.

 

When comparing UC Berkeley’s graduation success to peer institutions, our fourth year rate is near the middle of the group, and increases in the fifth and sixth year.  Berkeley’s sixth year graduation rates are the second highest of the public peer group.  There are no significant differences based on gender. 

 

The data shows that other institutions graduate more students within the various ethnic groups by the fourth year.  By the sixth year, graduation rates improve for the Berkeley campus, particularly for Asian, White, Hispanic, Non-Resident Alien, and Unknown students.  Other institutions, however, seem to graduate a higher percentage of Native American and Black students.

 

It should be noted that some entering cohort groups for some ethnicities are very small (as low as 10), making the data less statistically reliable.  Likewise, some universities may lose statistical reliability of ethnicity data to relatively large groups of “unknowns” (4% of the cohort at Berkeley).  Other institutions have none in this category.  The unknown group frequently outperforms others, as is the case for sixth year graduation rates at UCB (90% is higher than any other ethnic group).

 

If you have any questions about the enclosed data, or if you would like to see information for earlier years, please contact Alan Underwood (alanu@uclink4.berkeley.edu) in the Office of Planning and Analysis.

 

 

                                                                                                Sincerely,

 

 

                                                                                                Pamela H. Brown

                                                                                                Coordinator of Analytical Studies

 

cc:        Vice Chancellor James A. Hyatt

            Executive Director Dennis Hengstler

            Analyst Cynthia Schrager

            Analyst Alan Underwood

 

Enclosures