Calculating Graduate Student Success Rates and Keeping the Students on the Path to Success
At private institutions, one indicator of sustainability is success in retaining students through to degree completion. At Point Loma Nazarene, working definitions were developed to determine the flow of graduate students to degree. These definitions were applied to four graduate programs, and graduation and retention rates were analyzed according to demographic attributes of gender, ethnicity, and program enrollment. At CIIS, an online Learning Community space was created for doctoral students to provide an ongoing support network and to help students overcome the particular obstacles posed by the doctoral dissertation. Both institutions are committed to effectively addressing the high percentage of students nationally who do not complete their program.
