Iowa university graduation, retention rates strong as workforce needs persist

Iowa boasts a higher six-year graduation rate — at 73 percent — across its public universities than any state in the nation, a meaningful statistic for a region facing growing workforce demands and for a higher education sector facing mounting pressure and skepticism from lawmakers both regionally and nationally.

Looking at students who started at a public four-year university in the state and earned a degree at any college or university — even if it wasn’t the one they started at — Iowa again has the highest rate nationally at 82 percent, according to the National Student Clearinghouse and a new Board of Regents graduation and retention report.

Given that above-average graduation rate and that about 5 percent of Iowa regent students who enrolled in 2017 remain in college, only about 13 percent of the entry cohort left without a degree — well below the 24 percent national average.

“We've had a long trend of good news,” Board of Regents Associate Chief Academic Officer Jason Pontius told the board. “And this is another year of very good news for our universities.”

  Buy Photo

Graduating on time, staying in Iowa

Still, all three Iowa public universities are pushing to improve rates further through — among other things — stronger retention of students from year to year as they move through their academic journeys.

“When we talk about supporting students’ success, it's about helping students reach their goals — and that includes completing their degrees in a timely manner,” Kristin Woods, University of Northern Iowa director of student success and retention, told The Gazette.

The faster students graduate, the faster they start working and earning.

“Our students are primarily from Iowa,” Woods said of UNI. “And nine of 10 stay in the state after graduation.”

Regents report that half of all its university graduates who get full-time jobs still are working in Iowa 10 years after graduation. The numbers are higher nearer a student’s graduation — with the board reporting 58 percent working in Iowa one year after graduation.

UNI reported the highest percent of its graduates still are working in Iowa a decade after graduation — at 68 percent — with 76 percent working here one year post-degree. The University of Iowa reports the lowest percentage — 38 percent — still work in Iowa 10 years after graduation, with 50 percent doing so one year out.

And although Iowa is facing demographic changes and workforce challenges — in the form of recruitment, retention and skills across occupational categories like health care, education and construction — all three of Iowa’s public universities report serving as key out-of-state recruiters.

Half of UNI’s non-resident students report staying in Iowa after they graduate; about a quarter of Iowa State University non-resident graduates stay; and 15 to 20 percent of the UI’s non-residents stay in-state, according to regent survey data.

Filling workforce needs

A 2023 Workforce Needs Assessment for Iowa — produced by Iowa Workforce Development — found “finding qualified job candidates” as the top workforce challenge, according to 11,212 employers who responded.

A close second challenge was “lack of applicants.”

And 26 percent of the respondents reported employee retirements within the next two years as a concern.

Iowa’s public universities — aiming to fill those statewide worker needs — have decreased the time it takes students to graduate. Where just 35 percent of Iowa’s public university undergraduates who enrolled in 2000 earned a degree in four years, 58 percent of the 2019 cohort did.

And that 58 percent is out of all who entered the regent system in 2019 — including students who stopped or transferred to another institution. Of those students who graduated from the regent campus at which they started, 74 percent did so in four years — up from 42 percent in 1988, when a higher percent of 47 graduated in five years.

While much more infrequent, the rate of students earning degrees in three years has bumped up, too — from 1 percent to 6 percent over the past 20 years, in part, due to college courses students can take while still in high school. Those three-year increases are the largest at UNI, where the rate spiked from 1 to 9 percent.

“We have students who come to us and have that goal to be able to complete their degree in three years, so we want to make sure that pathway is available to them,” Woods said, noting UNI recently restructured its general education program to make it shorter and thus quicker to get through.

“It also emphasizes transferability,” she said. “So as we have more students coming to us from high school with transfer credits, and also students transferring from Iowa’s community colleges. That transition is smooth — so students aren't losing credits, and they're able to continue on that path to a timely degree.”

Racial gaps

Although the rate of students graduating in four years across the campuses has increased, a gap between white students and racial-ethnic minority students remains — with 60 percent of white students earning a degree in four years, compared with 48 percent of racial and ethnic minority students.

The gap is even bigger when looking at the six-year rate, with 75 percent of white students graduating within that time frame compare to 60 percent of minority students — down from 65 percent two years ago.

At ISU, specifically, the rate of Black students graduating in four years dropped from 39 percent last year to 35 percent in the most recent academic year — while the rate for white students climbed 1 percentage point to 60 percent, representing a 25 percentage-point gap between the two groups.

ISU’s six-year graduation rate for Black students dropped from 60 percent to 53 percent in the most recent year, compared with 77 percent of white ISU students who graduated in six years, up a percentage point from 76 percent.

Those gaps are relevant, given the growth in minority students across Iowa’s high schools.

“While gaps remain in regent university graduation rates by race/ethnicity, the regent universities consistently outperform national averages among all racial/ethnic groups attending four-year public universities,” according to the new graduation and retention rate report.

Retention strategies

One key method for increasing graduation rates and shrinking demographic gaps is to focus on retention rates — and all three of Iowa’s public universities are making gains in that category, with the combined percentage of undergraduates who returned for a second year climbing from 86 percent to 88 percent in 2023.

The UI reports the highest rate at 89 percent, a school record, followed by ISU’s 87 percent and UNI’s 84 percent, an improvement over its 81 percent in 2020.

Each campus has launched initiatives to increase retention rates, including a UI “Hawkeye Work Grant” program that debuted in 2022. It offers first-year students who show a “significant financial need” the opportunity to work on campus and receive a paycheck, in addition to a $1,000 grant to support university expenses.

“That really does help students,” University College Associate Dean Andrew Beckett said. “And it comes in the form of a scholarship, so it's tax free, and it goes directly to the U-bill.”

  Buy Photo

The idea for the program grew out of a surprise uptick in UI retention rates in the pandemic, which administrators credited — at least in part — to federal stimulus money being passed on to students.

So, Beckett said, the provost’s office decided to continue making extra dollars available to high-need students — while also connecting them to an income stream and to mentors to keep them engaged and coming back.

“It was kind of a win-win-win,” Beckett said, highlighting benefits not just for students and the university but for campus dining — where the program’s student employees work.

“We were really struggling to get students to work in the dining halls,” he said.

Of the 1,319 students who were offered the job-related grant in the first year, 106 took advantage, according to Beckett. And initial analysis of those participants revealed they had a 93 percent first-to-second year retention rate — 7 percent higher than the retention rate of those eligible students who chose not to participate in the program and 4 percent above the UI average.

For the second year, 170 students signed up — costing the university $170,000, an increase over the $103,884 spent providing the grants the past year.

“The students earned $85,000 in wages, so it was better than a one-for-one benefit for the students,” Beckett said.

The first year’s funding came from federal pandemic aid and this subsequent year’s funding came from the UI Provost’s Office, University College and campus dining.

“I think if it continues to be popular, we can look at expanding it,” Beckett said.

“Campus employment in general has been a strategy that we've been using for a number of years,” he said. “If students are working between seven to 15 hours a week, they can balance that with their courses, and they actually tend to do better than students who don't work at all.”

  Buy Photo

UI sophomore Charlotte Sears, 20, is among the 100-plus who participated in the program’s inaugural year — coming from San Diego and knowing no one in Iowa.

“My first friends were my co-workers,” Sears said when asked whether the program helped ensure her return for a second year. “One hundred percent.”

Not only did the job and grant help her with the financial piece of college, her co-workers “were the reason I had to come back.”

“I wanted to see them, and I wanted to work,” she said, reporting plans to continue working for the UI dining operation throughout her journey to a degree. “It really makes me feel connected to the University of Iowa.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com