Early in the session for the Arizona Board of Regents meeting, the Board learned Arizona is on track to meet the Regents’ goal of becoming nationally competitive by 2020.
The board then heard a presentation based on reports on the enrollment and graduation rates from Arizona high schools and colleges.
The presentation was based on the number of high school graduates who directly enter college, enrollment data from the 2009 fiscal year and degrees awarded for the 2008-2009 school year, according to Dan Anderson, assistant executive director for institutional analysis, who gave the presentation to the Board.
Based on graduation data from the 2007-2008 school years, 12,570 high school graduates went on to one of the three state universities directly after graduating. During the 2004-2005 school years, direct entry was below 10,000.
According to Anderson, these numbers represent minimal growth compared to data from previous years but said it’s not enough and it’s too soon to know if these numbers represent a trend.
“”The good news is there is a lot of potential,”” Anderson said. “”The bad news is Arizona does not do a good a job of moving high schools graduates to college.””
Since enrollment has increased, data shows that full-time equivalency has increased too, Anderson said. Enrollment has increased more at Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University than at the UA.
“”We’re clearly continuing to grow,”” he said. “”Full-time equivalency is increasing too.””
Currently Arizona is ranked 50th in the nation for education but Anderson’s report reaffirmed the Board’s goal of ranking higher in the country by 2020.
“”We are on track to meet the goal of being nationally competitive by 2020,”” Anderson said.
Regent Bob McLendon said it’s still not good to rank so poorly for the number of college freshmen who enroll directly after high school, but confirmed the state’s potential in raising that number.
“”We’ve got a lot of work to do but we’re on the right track,”” McLendon said.
Lastly, the Board learned that business, education and social science majors are the most popular majors for undergraduate students, and education is the most common degree for graduate students.
After Anderson’s report, Board President Ernest Calderón focused on the improvements made thus far by the state universities and he expressed his satisfaction for their efforts.
“”I just want to applaud the three universities in creating that enrollment growth.””
