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5 ways governing boards can help boost completion rates

New brief offers guidelines and practical suggestions for presidents, chancellors, and board members in using governance to increase completion rates at their institutions.

A new brief released today by the Association of Governing Boards [1] (AGB) of college and universities reveals that though the majority of boards in higher education agree that completion is among their top priorities, they also say they do not spend enough time on the topic to make a real difference.

This finding is part of a recent AGB survey [2] part of a Lumina Foundation [3]-funded project to enhance boards’ ability to help improve college completion rates. The survey and subsequent report on board members’ assessments of this knowledge and engagement in college completion efforts aims to help institutions across the country accomplish a core institutional mission to educate and graduate students; specifically, to boost enrollment and completion.

“Accomplishing higher education’s core mission—educating students and graduating them with high-quality degrees or credentials—requires board leadership, advocacy, and accountability,” said AGB President Richard D. Legon in a statement. “Graduation and student success should be the central priorities of our colleges and universities and as such, these should be a high priority for our governing boards.”

The statement, an outgrowth of the AGB research study, found that a vast majority of board members agree that they should play a more significant role in college completion:

Along with highlighting findings from the survey, the AGB statement offers guidelines and actionable suggestions for presidents, chancellors, and board members in using governance as a tool to increase the rate of college completion at their institutions.

(Next page: Guidelines for boards aiming to improve completion rates)

Core Principles

The statement includes five core principles [4] to guide board members in advancing completion efforts, as well as potential strategies boards can encourage to support student completion, such as:

1.Boards should declare college completion among their priorities, regularly reviewing metrics about student enrollment, retention, and completion, and using these data for related decision-making.

2.Boards should hold the president and senior administrators accountable for progress toward mutually agreed-upon goals for college completion. They should also acknowledge the role of faculty and staff in advancing the completion agenda.

3.Boards should ensure that their institutions’ mission is clear and that efforts to support college completion are aligned with mission.

4.Boards should ensure that institutional resources are aligned with affordability, retention, and education quality as they relate to completion.

5.Because college readiness and the application of transfer credits affect college completion, boards should ensure that institutional policies reflect a commitment to collaborations with community partners such as K-12 leaders, high school counselors, and other colleges from or to which students transfer.

[For a much more detailed breakdown of each principle, including specific examples of how each principle can be met, read the full statement here [5].]

Recommendations

The statement also lists a summary of recommendations moving forward for specific leadership. A sample of the recommendations for presidents and chancellors to boost completion rates includes:

A sample of recommendations for board members:

AGB will conduct a follow-up survey in 18 to 24 months to measure any progress on this issue.

For more recommendations and more information on the core principles, go to AGB’s website [6] or read the full statement here [5].