New research shows that six-year college completion rates increased in 2021 to 62.2%.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that the national six-year completion rate for students who started college in 2015 increased 1.2 percentage points over the class that started in 2014. This is the third consecutive year in which national completion rates were higher than 60%.
“Students who started college six years ago have been completing degrees and certificates at higher rates than in recent years,” said Doug Shapiro, the Clearinghouse Research Center’s executive director. “This broad measure of performance for higher education as a nationwide system, including transfers among two- and four-year schools of all kinds, shows long-term improvements for students and colleges alike, gains that took hold mostly in the pre-pandemic period.”
Community college students saw the largest increase in completion rates of all sectors, with an increase of 1.5 percentage points. Last year community colleges were the only sector that saw rates decline.
Completion rates increased for white, Black and Latinx students, with the largest jump among Black students, showing an increase of 1.9 percentage points. Asian student completion rates remained virtually unchanged.
Six-year completion rates increased in 32 out of the 46 states with sufficient data, according to the Clearinghouse. Nevada and Utah reported growth larger than the national average (up 4.6 percentage points and 3.4 percentage points, respectively). Still, Nevada remained with the second lowest statewide completion rate in the nation.
Of note, adult learners over 24 years old saw the largest one-year increases in the six-year completion rate. This group of students, comprising 8.6% of the 2015 entering cohort, saw an increase of 2.5 percentage points to 50.5%. Traditional college-age students continue to see higher completion rates than older students.
The Clearinghouse said in the report that shifting student enrollment patterns and demographics in the fall 2015 cohort may have contributed to the improvement in completion rates. For example, a larger share of the fall 2015 entering cohort started at public four-year schools while fewer students started at community colleges and private for-profit schools, the sectors with the lowest completion rates. The share of community college starters in 2015 was 6 percentage points smaller than five years earlier.
