Published: June 04, 2009 05:54 pm      

More graduates — 06/05/09

Numbers show that Kentucky is making progress by degrees

While Kentucky is likely to fall well short of the goal set by the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act to double the number of college graduates by 2020, the state is moving in the right direction by producing more college graduates than ever.

The state’s public and independent colleges, universities and community and technical colleges conferred 30,178 degrees, diplomas and certificates during commencement exercises this spring, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education reports. That represents a 7 percent increase from a year ago and a 40 percent increase in just five years.

With most state universities and community and technical colleges recording record enrollments in recent years, one may assume that record numbers of students should be receiving degrees, but that’s not necessarily a safe assumption. While schools in Kentucky have been successful in convincing more students than ever to give college a try, they have been less successful in having those students succeed once they enroll.

The 7 percent increase in degrees awarded is a healthy sign that colleges and universities are doing a better job of retaining students, and as a result, more are earning their degrees.

The increased number of degrees also is a positive indication that students fresh out of high school are arriving on campuses better prepared to do college work. Students, whose scores on their college entrance exams require that they take non-credit remedial classes where they go over material that they should have learned in high school, often find it both too time-consuming and too costly to remain in college.

Colleges also are attracting more older students, many of whom are returning to the classroom for the first time in a number of years. While such students often have both the desire and the maturity to do whatever it takes to succeed in college, the higher graduation rates are an indication that colleges and universities are doing a better job of helping older students be successful in the classroom.

The increase in graduates at Morehead State University was more than double the state average. MSU conferred 803 associate, bachelor’s and master’s/specialist degrees this spring, or 15 percent more than the 665 degrees MSU conferred in the spring of 2008.

Since Kentucky ranks near the bottom in the percentage of residents with college degrees, significantly increasing the number of college graduates in the state not only is important to the individuals who will earn much more during their lifetime than those without college degrees, but it also is important to the state as a whole. A woefully undereducated adult population remains one of the biggest obstacles to economic development in Kentucky. That problem is particularly severe in eastern Kentucky, where too many adults not only lack college degrees, but they also never finished high school.

As many of the new college graduates no doubt already have discovered, this is not a good time to be entering the job market. The most severe national recession in decades has many companies reducing their number of employees. Thus, many of the new graduates likely will have to wait for better economic times before launching a career in their chosen fields.

But Robert King, president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, said having more college graduates is the “best way to grow a robust and prosperous economy and improve the quality of life for Kentuckians ... We must remain committed to an improved Kentucky even in a challenging economy.”

Maybe the doors of opportunity Kentuckians hoped their college degrees would open remain closed for the time being. But this recession will not last forever. Increasing the number of college graduates remains a key to a healthy Kentucky economy.