Indicator: Postsecondary certificate or degree completion

What to know about measurement

Institutions regularly track and report certificate and degree completion for their students and can disaggregate this information by field of study, which can reveal disparities in access to certain fields like science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). State longitudinal data systems that include postsecondary data contain individual-level completion data from in-state institutions, making it possible to measure completion more broadly, but can obtain completion data from out-of-state institutions only through the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), which collects individual records provided by participating institutions.^x Although NSC collects and reports data on program of study (such as Psychology) and degree title (such as Bachelor of Arts), completion records sometimes omit these data due to issues with data coverage or underreporting. Improved standardization of data collection and sharing in this area could help data users gain important insights into matriculation patterns and degree attainment.

At the institutional level, aggregate completion data are available annually through Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) for all Title IV-eligible universities, colleges, and technical and vocational education providers. Based on aggregate data reported by institutions, IPEDS publishes three related but distinct measures of degree completion, which are measured at different time points and cover different student populations:

1. The IPEDS graduation rate assesses whether students complete their intended degree within 100, 150, or 200 percent of the normal time for that degree type. The graduation measure is calculated only for full-time, first-time degree-seeking students.
2. The IPEDS Outcome Measures survey tracks whether students complete a certificate, associate’s, or bachelor’s degree four, six, and eight years after entering the institution. This measure captures degree completion outcomes for more students than the graduation rate measure because it is calculated separately for part-time and non-first-time degree-seeking students in addition to full-time, first-time degree-seeking students. However, the Outcome Measures survey does not track the type of program in which students are enrolled, and so does not provide a measure of the timing of degree completion relative to normal program length.

3. IPEDS also separately tracks the total number and type of degrees awarded at each institution, as well as the number of students completing a degree each year. However, these completion measures are not tied to specific cohorts of students and do not capture how long it took for the degrees to be completed.

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^{x For additional technical details regarding institutions’ reporting of completion data to NSC, see Causey, J., Pevitz, A., Ryu, M., Scheetz, A., & Shapiro, D. (2022). Completing college: National and state report on six-year completion rates for fall 2015 beginning cohort. National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. https://nscresearchcenter.org/completing-college/#:~:text=Highlights,colleges%20starters%20(%2B1.5%20pp)}