National Student Clearinghouse Archives - Wally Boston

Undergraduate Degree Earners Remain Steady in 2020

January 29, 2021 Wally Boston

In a newly issued report, the National Student Clearinghouse reported that the total of 3.7 million new undergraduate degree earners was flat in the 2019-2020 academic year for the first time in eight years. Even more alarming, while the total numbers remained the same, the number of first-time graduates decreased 1 percent (26,000), while non-first-time completers continued to increase by 2.7 percent.

Current Events

Transfer, Mobility, Progress, and Higher Ed Enrollment

December 24, 2020 Wally Boston

The National Student Clearinghouse issued its final Fall 2020 enrollment report for higher education institutions this week. Appropriately, the report’s title had “COVID-19” in a smaller font above it. Clearly, COVID-19 influenced higher education enrollment this year, but the question remains as to whether COVID-19 simply accelerated a trend that was already in the works.

Trends in Higher Education

The NSC and Why Higher Ed Enrollments Are Trending Down

October 16, 2020 Wally Boston

The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) issued its most recent Fall 2020 enrollment report on October 15. The report uses data reported by colleges and universities to the NSC as of September 24 and compares the 2020 data to 2019 and 2018 data.

In the clamor for increasing graduation and persistence rates, are we ignoring the student at risk factors and student characteristics?

February 22, 2012 Wally Boston

In the early days of online education, a commonly discussed phenomenon was the low completion rates of students. Some chose to explain the departure of students using characteristics such as lack of social integration and academic integration for students matriculating in online programs as identified by Vincent Tinto and others. As technologies utilized in the classroom improved and subsequently, online teaching techniques, student persistence improved as well, but not close to the levels sustained by some of the best face-to-face programs.