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This report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center suggests that college completion rates are stagnating, with 62.3 percent of students who enrolled in 2016 completing a degree by June 2022. The figure is virtually unchanged from the prior year’s six-year completion rate of 62.2 percent.
Among the report’s key findings:
- Six-year completion rates increased in over half of states, but improvements were small, with only five states increasing 1 percentage point (pp) or more. This is markedly different from the previous year when two-thirds of states had gains of at least 1 pp.
- Completion rates decreased at similar rates for White, Black, and Latinx students, by approximately half a percentage point, but increased for Asian and Native American students (+1.2 pp and +3.0 pp respectively).
- The gender gap in completion rates is steadily growing and is the widest seen since 2008 (7.1 pp.)
- Traditional-aged college students beginning in fall 2016 saw no change in their overall six-year completion rate. Completion rates continue to improve for older students. Older students continue to make gains, but they still lag behind traditional aged students.