Chapman graduation, retention rates fluctuate over past decade

The Panther looked through data on the university’s graduation and retention rates from over the past decade. Graphic by SUKHMAN SAHOTA, art director

Chapman’s graduation rates have continued to fluctuate around 80% for the past decade. The university’s retention rates have mostly fluctuated around 90% except for the fall 2020 semester, which dropped to 85% from the previous fall’s rate of 91%.

According to Marisol Arredondo, Chapman’s director of Institutional Research and Decision Support (IRADS), this drop occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent remote classes that followed. Other universities also experienced a decreased retention rate at that time.

“In addition to some students doing a more local option for the remote year, international students were unable to travel and were undecided on whether they could continue at Chapman,” Arrendondo wrote in an email to The Panther. “It can also be noted that many of that cohort who sat out their second year returned for their third, and we expect the class’s six-year graduation rate to be on par with prior cohorts.”

Every year, the university records a slew of data pertaining to its graduation and retention rates, including the number of each degree awarded to students and the gender and racial or ethnic makeup of the recipients. All of the data can be found on the Reports and Publications page for the IRADS department page of Chapman’s website.

Over the past decade, the number of bachelor’s degrees the university has awarded to students has increased from over 1,141 degrees in the 2010-11 school year to over 1,800 in the 2019-20 school year. Meanwhile, the number of master’s degrees has continued to fluctuate between 430 degrees and 470 degrees in the same timespan.

The 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2017-18 school years have seen over 500 master’s degrees awarded to students, while the 2018-19 school year saw the highest number of master’s degrees given to students at 605 degrees. However, the following school year, that number dropped significantly to 471 master’s degrees. Arredondo noted that for a university of Chapman’s size, this is considered to be a normal fluctuation.

As for doctorate degrees, the number over the past decade has significantly increased from under 10 during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years to over 300 degrees during the 2017-18 school year and the following years. 

As of the 2019-20 school year, 63% of undergraduate degree recipients identified as female while 37% identified as male. For master’s degrees, the percentage increased by 4% for female students, and for male students, the percentage decreased by 4%. Meanwhile, 59% of doctoral degree recipients identified as female, and 41% of recipients identified as male.

Over the past decade, Chapman’s percentage of female undergraduate degree recipients has continued to fluctuate between 55% and 63% compared to the percentage of male undergraduate degree recipients fluctuating between 37% and 43%. This decrease in bachelor’s degrees for males correlates with the continuing decrease in male student enrollment, which has become prevalent nationwide in recent years.

As for the racial and ethnic breakdown of degree recipients, undocumented, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Black/African American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students make up the smallest demographics of degree recipients over the past decade.

For undocumented students, the highest percentage of undergraduate degree recipients occurred during the 2012-13 and 2015-16 school years at 6%, but it has slightly decreased to four percent as of the 2019-20 school year.

The highest percentage of master’s degree recipients was at 23% during the 2014-15 school year, and this number has fluctuated over the next four school years before slightly decreasing to 16% during the 2019-20 school year. Meanwhile, doctoral degree recipients have never risen above three percent within the past decade. 

American Indian and Alaskan Native students have consistently made up less than 1% of degree recipients for all three levels in the past decade, while Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students have consistently made up less than 1% of degree recipients for undergraduate degrees.

Since the 2016-17 school year, there have been between 0% and 1% of master’s and doctoral recipients for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students. For Black/African-American students, all three levels of degree recipients have fluctuated between 1% and 3%.

According to Arredondo, the university is working on recruiting more students from these communities in geographic areas where these ethnicities are more prominent in order to attract more students from these communities. 

This fall’s enrollment of Black undergraduate students, according to Arredondo, was 2.1%, which is similar to what the University of California, Irvine and California State University, Fullerton, have reported, according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

White, Latinx and Asian students, meanwhile, have consistently made up the three largest racial groups on campus.

Since the 2010-11 school year, the percentage of white bachelor’s degree recipients for all three levels has slightly decreased from 69% during 2010-11 to 55% during 2019-20. Master’s recipients fluctuated around 52% up until the 2014-15 school year, however the percentage decreased to about 45% and later to 41% by the 2019-20 school year.

For Latinx students, the percentage of doctoral degree recipients increased from six percent during the 2010-11 school year to less than 19% by the 2018-19 school year. The following school year saw a 4% decrease for doctoral degree recipients. Bachelor’s degree recipients fluctuated between 11% and 16%, while master’s degree recipients fluctuated between 11% and 19%.

Asian students, which make up the third largest racial group at Chapman, have seen an increase across all three levels, with the biggest increase happening for doctoral recipients, contributing to a rise from 13% during the 2010-11 school year to 32% during the 2019-20 school year.

According to Arredondo, Chapman is currently working on three major projects with the goal to increase the graduation rates, the first of which is First-Year Foundation courses in Dodge College of Media and Arts, Wilkinson College for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Fowler School of Engineering and Schmid College of Science and Technology.

The FFC courses are intended to help first-year students transition from high school to the university level where they will be able to critically think more and also be self-motivated and independent. 

These colleges also have programs intended to improve their undergraduate majors’ success.

Another project is the Exploratory Majors program, which was launched this past summer as a pilot program in order to help undeclared students find their major as being undeclared affects graduation rates.

The final project is an annual, year-long initiative meant to help students transition from being “prospective students” to “enrolled students” between May 1 and Orientation Week.