For most students, starting their studies at a four-year institution comes with an implied promise: after eight semesters, you will graduate with a degree that will make you marketable in the workplace and serve as a launchpad for your career. However, many students struggle to finish college on time.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, the four-year graduation rate is just over 50% at private institutions and only 33% at public colleges and universities. Even extending the timeline to six years only raises those numbers to 65% and 57%, respectively.
Failure to finish a degree on time comes with potentially significant complications. It’s not just delaying the career timeline for a year or two. Every additional year in college brings extra costs, from tuition to housing and living expenses. Even renewable scholarships no longer apply. Students begin to drop out, which becomes potentially catastrophic for the institution and students alike.
On the flip side, it’s in everyone’s best interest to help students finish their degrees on time. That includes understanding the struggles and obstacles students may face. However, it also means being proactive about putting a solution in place to overcome those obstacles in a timely fashion.
The 5 Biggest Obstacles to Finish College on Time
Why don’t students graduate on time? The answers are both plentiful and nuanced. Research has shown five common reasons for students not being able to finish college on time. That is, failing to go through college in four years or fewer:
The Credit Misperception
Most colleges and the federal financial aid system consider students taking 12 credits as full-time. However, you actually need an average of 15 credits over the span of eight semesters to graduate in four years. Students who only take 12 credits (or four typical classes) will need six years.
Complex Major Requirements
Many majors require only 36 to 40 credits to satisfy their requirements. But some require more. For example, a bachelor of science degree requires 60 credits. However, accountants actually need 150 credits to graduate–an average of almost 19 credits per semester when looking to finish school in four years.
Enhanced or Nuanced Prerequisites
Not every student declaring a major knows what that entails. Some, like engineering and medical degrees, require a wide range of prerequisites to set a solid foundation. When students don’t know about these prereqs in time, planning a graduation schedule for four years becomes difficult.
Lack of Time Due to Working
The number of college students who work while studying continues to increase, rising to 40% among full-time students in 2020. More time spent working means less time for studies, along with more nuanced needs for getting help outside of regular business hours.
Transferring Colleges
When students transfer to a different college, not all of their existing credits come with them. That means extra work re-taking major requirements and prereqs. As a result, the timeline to graduation is expanded for the 2.1 million transfer students in the United States today.
These obstacles are not news to most institutions. In fact, many of them have gone to lengths to institute specific rules, policies, and personnel designed to help struggling students finish college on time. Chief among them: the trend toward hiring more academic advisors, who can help students arrange their schedules and better understand their degree requirements.
Challenges With the Counselor-First Solution to On-Time Graduation
Academic advisors and other types of counselors are undoubtedly crucial to helping students understand their academic journey and make the right decisions. But this solution isn’t without its own obstacles.
New academic advisors and other counselors can be an investment that most institutions hesitate to make in struggling budget environments. As a result, these professionals get stretched thin. This leads to limited availability and slow response rates during important deadlines like class registration or add/drop deadlines.
On the other side of the coin, a move toward more and more personalized advisors often results in hiring new professionals without a strong background at the institution. They lack the organizational knowledge required to truly help students who might not know what questions to ask.
Finally, most advisor models are relatively siloed, hired by individual academic departments specifically to help students in their major. But degree requirements and prerequisites often stretch beyond individual majors. This leaves counselors unable to provide the necessary answers to students in dire need of them. Students looking to change their major only lead to more complicated situations.
How Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Efforts to Help Students Finish College on Time
Academic advisors and other counselors are undoubtedly an important part of the equation for any college looking to help its students graduate in four years. But they’re not the only piece. In fact, artificial intelligence can play a significant role in enhancing the support system for students as well.
Consider the example of digital assistants in higher education. The right solution can help to solve these issues through a number of core features and benefits:
- Instant answers related to credits and degree requirements that span the entire university, based on a central database bank that can learn from interactions and expand over time.
- Communications via channels most familiar to students, like texting and the institution’s website.
- 24/7 availability for students who need help with degree-related questions outside of regular business hours or ahead of important enrollment deadlines.
- A natural filtering system that allows advisors and counselors to focus on more in-depth, individualized interactions with confused or struggling students.
That last point is worth elaborating on further. When implemented strategically, digital assistants in higher education don’t replace the value that academic advisors can bring to students. Instead, they enhance the effectiveness of the work these counselors do, taking repetitive questions out of their areas of responsibility and allowing them to work more strategically in the process.
A Strategic Approach to Finish College on Time
Of course, these solutions and improvements don’t happen automatically. Getting students to graduate on time requires a strategic approach that considers multiple tactics, ranging from curriculum design to strategic partnerships between advisors and the registrar’s office. In this approach, AI-enabled assistants offer a steady drumbeat of communication, answering the everyday questions that prevent students from slipping through the cracks in their quest for a college degree.
