1. Increasing Completion Rates: From Application to Graduation
Wil Perkins, Associate Registrar, Harding University
M4| 4 February 2019
I am Wil Perkins and I work as the Assoc. Registrar for Harding University. Harding is a private mid-sized university with over 5000 students from all 50 states and several foreign countries. We offer Bachelors to Doctoral level degree programs. Currently our SIS is Banner, our degree audit is uAchieve/College Source product, and we also use the Argos reporting software and OnBase as our imaging solution. My main responsibility is keeping the degree audit software up-to-date and functional as well as overseeing the degree conferral process.

2. With the cost of higher education rising faster than the cost of inflation, there has been more demand to help students keep costs down by helping them graduate on time. What exactly “on time” means can vary by student but your institution no doubt tracks 4, 5, & 6 year completion rates. In National Students Clearinghouse January’s Newsletter they boasted of a 6-year completion rate that is almost 60%.

3. Harding University has 8 points of contact to help get the student to graduation
I’d like to share with you what Harding University is doing to boost our graduation rates. In order to assist UG students in the completion of their degree program, Harding University has 8 points of contact with the student. We are going to take a closer look at each but, but they are: Advising Pre-Registration, Degree Audit Accessibility, 60-hour Audit, Graduation Application, Pre-Graduation Warning, Graduation Warning, Grad Fest, and finally the Graduation Removal.

4. #1 – Advising Pre-Registration
Visit with assigned advisor
Transfer work is articulated but not exported to SIS
Advisor completes and submits form to Registrar’s Office
Only after all these steps are completed can the student register for courses
#1 – Advising Pre-Registration. Bison Bound is Harding’s required 2-day summer orientation for 1st year students. To participate in orientation, students must be fully admitted to the University. We mandate that they must meet with an assigned advisor. The advisor will run a degree audit in uAchieve to see if there is any transfer or dual-enrollment credit. Our transfer coordinator will articulate their work in uAchieve but not export it to Banner until we know for sure the student is going to attend Harding. The advisor fills out a form saying s/he has met with the student, sends it to the Registrar’s Office, and we release a pin that will allow a student to register for classes.

5. #2 – Degree Audit Accessibility
Advisors and students have 24/7 access to run degree audits on demand from uAchieve self-service
Audit is mirror reflection of the academic catalog
Substitutions and waivers from the audit
#2 – Degree Audit Accessibility. Advisors and students have 24/7 access to run degree audits on demand from uAchieve self-service. I work very hard to make sure the audit is a mirror reflection of the academic catalog so if the student follows the audit, s/he should be able to meet all degree requirements. All substitutions/exceptions are handled by our office and we are able to apply them directly from the audit. Therefore, immediately after we put in the exception, we are able to see if it has applied correctly and accomplished what was intended.

6. #3 – Advising – Mandated 60 Hours
Students who have completed 45 hours of coursework must meet with their advisor before reaching the 60 hour mark
Registration hold if they do not complete this task
Advisors and students fill out a plan to finish degree
Registrar’s Office runs a uAchieve audit, compares it to the submitted plan, and s the student and the advisor if any requirements are missing
#3 – Mandated 60-hour advising. Students who have completed 45 hours of coursework must meet with their advisor before they reach the 60-hour mark. What we discovered is that many students self-advisor or peer-advise. Therefore, the University mandates advising at the 60-hour mark. Students must meet with their advisor and work out the rest of their degree program. If students do not complete this task, we place a registration hold until they do. The student is required to submit the plan to the Registrar’s Office. We run an audit in uAchieve and compare their plan to what the audit says. If there are any missing requirements, the student and advisor are ed.

7. #3 – Advising – Planner Students able to plan from the audit
We are in the process of implementing uAchieve’s Planner. Students will be able to drag/drop courses from their audit into their plan. Our hope is that this will reduce students taking unneeded courses and/or advisors suggesting courses not based on the student’s catalog. The theory is that if students are focused on completing their degree requirements, their completion rates will go up.

8. #3 – Advising – Planner
It warns students if they plan a course in the wrong semester or without the proper pre- requirement
(My Hope) Students always have 2 semesters planned ahead or a graduation application
Will receive a hold that prevents registration without either of these
One of the advantages of the Planner is that it warns the student and advisor if a course is placed in a semester when it will not be offered. It will also provide alerts for pre- or co-requisites that have not been met for the course. My hope is that students will always have 2 semesters planned ahead or a graduation application submitted. If there is no plan, the student will receive a registration hold.

9. #4 – Graduation Application
Online process initiated by the student.
blast to students with hours regarding two Commencements away
blast to students with 108 or more hours regarding upcoming Commencement
Available up to a year in advance
The 4th point of contact is the Graduation Application. This is an online process initiated by the student. I do run a report and students if they have more than 90 hours and encourage them to meet with their advisors and apply for graduation. We open the graduation application a year in advance so students may apply as early as possible.

10. #4 – Graduation Application
Deadlines
Spring deadline is Oct 1st of the semester before
Fall/Summer deadline is Mar 1st of the semester before
Charge a $50 late fee
Online application is turned off the 6th week of the semester
Manually process with a $75 late fee
To encourage UG students to apply early, we have application deadlines and late fees. For Spring a student must apply by October 1st, and for Fall/Summer the student must apply by March 1st. A student may apply for graduation after these deadlines, but we add a $50 late fee for doing so. The cut-off for anyone to apply is the 6th week of the semester. A student may apply after this date; however, it is a manual process, the student must be on-track to graduate and we charge a $75 late fee.

11. #4 – Graduation Application
Receive daily list of students who have applied
Audit is run on uAchieve to identify any requirements remaining in the degree program
sent to student, advisor, Registrar, and graduation coordinator
I receive a daily list of students who have applied for graduation from Argos. I run an audit on these students and identify any requirements remaining. An with these missing requirements is sent to the student, advisor, Registrar and the graduation coordinator (me). I upload the and the audit to our imaging system so we have a permanent record of what the student was told and when they were told.

12. #5 – Pre-Graduation WARNING
Run batch audit in uAchieve on candidates to update their graduation status
Run Argos report that sends an blast to any student and advisor with requirements remaining
Sent out the 1st day of the semester while students can still add/drop
#5 – we do a Pre-Graduation WARNING. About a week before the first day of the semester, I run a batch audit on all students who have applied to graduate at the end of the term. If the batch audit says they are complete with their current courses, I update their status in Banner; if not, I mark them as Lacking Requirements. On the first day of the semester, I run a report that sends out an blast to all students and their advisors who are lacking requirements. It is a generic and simply tells them something is incomplete in their audit and they should meet with their advisor during the free add/drop period to fix any issues while they still have the ability to do so.

13. #6 – Graduation WARNING
2nd week of the semester another batch audit is run
Anyone not complete is sent an detailing the remaining requirements.
Given until the Friday of week 10 to verify their ability to complete their degree program or are removed from graduation
We move the graduation term at no cost
Contact #6 is the student receives a Graduation WARNING . The 2nd week of the semester, after add/drop, I run another batch audit. Anyone who is not complete receives an detailing exactly what is missing. This goes to the student, advisor, Registrar, and graduation coordinator. Students are given until the Friday of the 10th week to verify their ability to complete their degree program or I remove their graduation application. If they are using transfer work, they must verify they are enrolled in the course.

14. #7 – Grad Fest Held the 10th week of the semester
One-stop shop for Commencement
Students verify their diploma name, degree program, and diploma mailing address
Financial Aid, Alumni Office, Career Center all participate
Students are able to pick up their academic regalia
Any student who has not responded to the WARNING must come see me
The University’s 7th point of contact is what we call Grad Fest. It is held the 10th week of the semester for all students who plan to graduate. It is a one-stop shop for all things pertaining to commencement. The Registrar’s Office is the gatekeeper of this event. Our office prints tickets that list the student’s name as it will appear on the diploma, their degree program, and diploma mailing address. The student’s graduation status is also listed, so at a glance, our office knows if this student is OT or if any issues are remaining. If a student hasn’t responded to my s, they are sent to my office so I can speak to them. Other offices participate in this event. The hook is that students can pick up their academic regalia. Because of this we get a 90% participation rate for this event.

15. #8 – Graduation REMOVAL
Students who fail to respond and adequately validate their ability to finish have their graduation applications removed (24- hour window)
Student, advisor, Chair/Dean, Registrar are all ed that the graduation application has been removed (dates of previous s included)
By week 12 have a clean list of candidates for degrees
#8 – Students who have failed to validate their ability to finish by the Friday of the 10th week receive a Graduation REMOVAL . I give them 24 hours to fix any remaining issues or their application is removed. This is sent to the student, advisor, Registrar, Dean/Chair, and the graduation coordinator. It has gotten around campus that I am serious about this, so this tends to get a response. Students who have their graduation application removed have to apply again. By week 12, I have a fairly clean list of graduates.

16. Gradation
Since we’ve implemented this policy only 1.6% of participants in Commencement do not finish in the semester they plan to do so
Spring 2017 – out of UG’s, 12 did not finish
Spring 2018 – out of UG’s, 4 did not finish
Since we have implemented this policy, we have an almost 98% rate of success of students actually completing their degree program in the semester in which they plan to graduate. Throughout this process I have established a relationship of enforcing deadlines and making students stick to them. Students with transfer work must have their transcripts in our office the 2nd week after Commencement in order to graduate that semester.

17. Strategic Plan
Attain the following measures of success to track progress from recruitment to beyond graduation: …. four-year graduation rate of 50 percent, six-year graduation rate of 70 percent, ….
4.38% increase in 4-year rate in the last 3 years.
The proof is in the numbers. I have been in charge of graduation for the last 3 years and I have been using uAchieve for the last 2 years. Our strategic plan came out this Fall and I’m already at the 4-year goal of 50%. Clearinghouse reports the 6-year completion rate is 58.3%

18. Advising – Pre-Registration
Degree Audit Accessibility – 24/7
Advising – 60 hours
Graduation Application
Pre-Graduation Warning
Graduation WARNING
Grad Fest
Graduation REMOVAL

19. Questions?
Thank You!
Increasing Completion Rates: Application to Graduation
Wil Perkins