Benchmarking retention, progression, and graduation rates in undergraduate higher education across different time windows

Abstract

Students’ retention rates (RR), students’ progression rates (PR), and students’ graduation rates (GR) are statistical figures commonly used in higher education to monitor the performance of higher education institutions (HEI), academic programs (courses), or their students. Due to the variability in defining these quantitative quality metrics, their values should be interpreted carefully with a clear understanding of how they were computed to avoid misleading judgments and unfair comparisons. In the current study, we develop clearly-defined benchmarking retention, progression, and graduation rates by curating and processing (with the aid of descriptive statistics, nonlinear extrapolation, numerical relaxation, and regression analysis) well-documented public longitudinal raw data about undergraduate higher institutions over four recent consecutive cohorts. We particularly account for the variability in the desired time window over which some rates are reported. We also count for the presence of a pre-college bridging year of study (a foundational or preparatory postsecondary year) offered before the formal college program starts. Based on our outcomes, the overall bachelor’s degree benchmarking retention rate after one year of entry is 75.93%, the overall benchmarking progression rate after one year of entry is 75.22%, and the overall benchmarking graduation rate within 150% of the normal degree duration is 64.2%.