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ABSTRACT

In response to a state mandate to consider time-to-degree, a transcript analysis was performed on BSEE graduates at Ohio University to determine the time it took them to obtain their degree. It was found that the average student took 5.15 years and 15.6 quarters to graduate. Major causes of students taking more than four years were failing, withdrawing from, and repeating courses, enrolling in an insufficient number of hours per quarter, and taking free electives. Also, it was found that hours lost when transferring institutions and changing majors, taking English as a second language (ESL) courses, and stopping out delayed some students. Students in the top quartile of GPA finished significantly sooner than other students while students with non-ESL remedial courses and students who participated in cooperative education were not delayed. Implications of these findings for Ohio University and other programs are discussed.

I. INTRODUCTION

It is well established that college students are taking longer to graduate [1-3]. The United States Department of Education reports that the percentage of college graduates who finish college within four years after completing high school has decreased from 45.6 percent in 1977 to 34.5 percent in 1986 to 31.1 percent in 1990 [3]. A 1995 Texas study showed that fewer than 30 percent of students finished their degree in four years or less and that, on average, it took six years (13.9 semesters) to graduate [4].

State governments have increased interest in assessing and controlling the performance of public universities [5-8] and time-to-degree has been targeted as a measure of performance [9-14]. The study described herein is, in part, motivated by the Ohio Board of Regents' Success Challenge program which, through incremental budgetary control, seeks to improve graduation rates for both at-risk students as well as all students at state supported universities in Ohio [15]. In addition to government initiatives, there have been other recent efforts in Ohio and elsewhere to encourage universities to adopt four-year graduation plans [16].

Although graduation rate has not gone unnoticed in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education, there has been little, if any, related published research before 1994 [17]. However, since 1990 there has been much speculation as to the reasons why so many in the general student population are taking longer than the traditional four years to graduate [4, 18-20]. Reasons reported that are attributable to academic reasons include: inadequate preparation for college-level studies, change of and/or delay in selecting a major, transfer between schools, dropping/repeating courses, and participation in cooperative education programs. Non-academic reasons reported include: taking time out from school (stopping out), participation in extracurricular activities and employment, student's lower expectations of themselves, and financial problems. Institutional reasons reported include: unavailability of required courses due to closure or infrequent offerings, student-advising problems, and increased graduation requirements [21].

Research studies have revealed that weak student preparation and accumulation of excess credit-hours [17, 22], light course loads [3, 23] and dropping courses are the factors most related to students taking more than four years to graduate [17, 24, 25]. It was also found that older students [17], male students [17, 22], and students with financial aid [23] take longer. Neither student employment nor advising was found to influence time-to-degree [22-23].

Research has also shown that engineering students tend to take even longer to graduate than the general student population. A study of students graduating from high school in 1972 showed only 42 percent of engineering graduates finished in four years as compared to 49 percent of all graduates [22]. In a more recent study of 200,000 students entering 38 public land grant universities between 1988 and 1990, it was found that engineering students take longer than any other four-year major to graduate [26]. Of those starting, 16.3 percent of engineering students were still enrolled after five years compared to 9.9 percent of all students. These findings suggest that graduation rate research is important to engineering education.

The two recent studies at The Ohio State University and Harvey Mudd College are among the few that have been published about engineering students' time-to-degree [27-28]. Ohio State's College of Engineering students who started in 1988 averaged 4.75 years to graduate, while Harvey Mudd College reported that almost all of their engineering students graduated in four years.

The study described herein examines the time taken by electrical engineering students at Ohio University to complete their degrees and identifies some reasons why most exceed four years. At Ohio University, typically, considerable effort is expended in planning the correct quarter-by-quarter sequencing of courses. However, if these plans are intended for four-year programs and too many students are taking more than four years, obviously something is amiss and a remedy is in order. In any case, the most effective utilization of instructional resources requires that actual student enrollment practices be known. In addition to serving the needs of Ohio University, the information reported here may be helpful to engineering educators involved in curricular review and redesign projects, such as have been undertaken recently at Ohio University [29] and elsewhere 30-33].

II. METHODOLOGY

This research was conducted at Ohio University (OU), which is a Research-II Carnegie classification, state-supported university with an enrollment of 27,798 students on one main and five regional campuses. OU has 276 undergraduate degree programs and a retention rate of 85 percent. Due to its rural location, the student body is largely residential (

Ohio University utilizes a quarter system. Four-year curricula are designed to be completed in 12 10-week quarters. There are three regular academic quarters (fall, winter, and spring) and an extra quarter in the summer designed to give students the opportunity to take additional courses to get ahead or catch up in their programs. Generally one credit-hour is awarded for one hour of class per week for the 10 weeks of a quarter.

At the time of the study, the curriculum for all students required a minimum of 213 quarter credit-hours. In order to complete the degree in four years students were required to take 53.25 credit-hours per year. Due to the prerequisite structure of the curriculum's required courses, the minimum time a student could complete a degree was ten quarters. For each required course a main section is offered as well as a trailer section the following quarter. About two-thirds of the sophomore and junior EE courses are offered in the summer. It is school policy to accommodate students who have the prerequisites to enroll in any required course offered by the school, thus students cannot be delayed by heavily enrolled closed courses.

At Ohio University, students are allowed to repeat a course up to three times and have the subsequent grade completely replace the previous grade. Failed courses are included in this policy. Students have the ability to drop a course without consequences the first two weeks of the ten-week quarter. Between the third and the sixth week, students may withdraw from a course without receiving a grade.

For the study, data was collected from each student's transcript. Information on gender, ACT/SAT scores, HS rank, GPA, and immigration status was recorded. The time interval between when each student started college and the quarter they completed degree requirements was calculated.1 The number of quarters a student was enrolled full-time (>10 credit-hours), part-time, on co-op assignment and not enrolled during the interval was recorded. For each academic year, the number of credit-hours each student attempted was collected and recorded by credit-hours earned, credit-hours failed, credit-hours of courses withdrawn from, and credit-hours of courses the student passed and subsequently repeated. Withdrawal credit-hours were further subdivided by whether the student was passing or failing at the time of withdrawal as noted on the student transcript. Because some courses required a minimum grade in prerequisite courses, some students needed to repeat a course they had passed earlier. These credit-hours were distinguished from those from courses that students repeated voluntarily.