INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Commission for Higher Education on Friday adopted a new strategic plan to improve college completion and student success.
The plan, titled “Reaching Higher, Achieving More,” outlines three key challenges:
• College completion: Increase on-time college graduation rates for Hoosier students to at least 50 percent at four-year campuses and 25 percent at two-year campuses by 2018.
• Degree production: By 2025, double the number of college degrees and certificates produced currently (requires increasing annual degree production from • Education attainment: Increase higher education attainment of Hoosier adults to 60 percent of Indiana’s population by 2025 (45 percent by 2018).
Indiana ranks 42nd nationally in educational attainment with only a third of the state’s adult population completing education beyond high school, according to the commission.
Fewer than one-third of Indiana’s four-year college students graduate on time, and just over half graduate after six years. Only 4 percent of the state’s two-year college students graduate on time, and 12 percent complete within three years.
At Indiana State University, “what the commission wants to achieve is exactly aligned with ISU’s strategic goals,” ISU President Dan Bradley said Friday. “We’re interested in being a partner with the commission and helping Indiana achieve its goals in term of higher education completion.”
ISU has made some progress in the last few years “and I think we can continue to do that,” he said.
Under the state’s performance funding system, ISU — along with other colleges — will be rewarded based on improving graduation rates.
But Bradley said there is some understanding that ISU students face more challenges than students at some other Indiana campuses. ISU students (and families) tend to have more modest incomes and many students must work; there are other factors that may make it difficult to complete a degree in four years, Bradley said.
The university is implementing many measures to improve freshman retention, which ultimately will improve graduation rates, he said.
ISU also is looking at ways to work with new freshmen the first semester, and even the first few weeks, “to help them adjust to the differences between high school and college,” he said.
In one initiative, ISU has instituted a summer “bridge” program for incoming freshmen, in which students come to campus for three weeks before the regular academic year to help them be more successful. ISU intends to expand the program this summer and make it mandatory for those students whose high school grades fall below a certain grade-point average.
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