Dive Brief:
- A new study from InsideTrack and the American Council on Education shows that students who re-enroll in college after spending at least one year away complete their degree only 33.7% of the time, compared to 54.1% for first-time students.
- The study’s authors say the data shows that the higher education system needs to do a much better job supporting adults with some college experience who decide to re-enroll.
- The re-enrolling students who combined full-time and part-time enrollments during their academic careers completed a degree 44.5% of the time, compared to 40.9% for the first-time students with mixed enrollments.
Dive Insight:
According to the study, 2.5 million adults re-entered college between 2005 and 2008 but still haven’t completed their degree. The study breaks down re-enrolling student graduation rates by state — Nevada has the worst rate, at 21.1%, followed by Alaska at 22.7% and California at 24%. The best: the District of Columbia at 57%, Delaware at 50.5%, and Utah at 45.3%.