Andrew Payne
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According to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, for the eighth straight time, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the nation’s “best value” among public colleges and universities. N.C. State garnered the eighteenth spot. Other N.C. schools to rank in Kiplinger’s top 100 include UNC-Wilmington (25), Appalachian State University (29), UNC-Asheville (43) and UNC-Greensboro (98).
Why the disparity between NCSU and UNC-CH’s rankings? Graduation rates. UNC’s 4-year graduate rate is 71 percent. Their 6-year graduation rate is 83 percent. Contrast that to our graduation rates — 37 and 69.5 percent respectively. Our graduation rates pale in comparison to Carolina and our other peer institutions across the country. The university administration has been working for years to improve these rates, which have tremendous impacts on rankings like Kiplinger and U.S. News and World Report. Unfortunately the major initiative that has been the product of this effort is the progress toward degree policy.
That policy is just another bureaucratic hurdle that students face to graduate. Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel? Why not look to institutions ranked higher? The answer — the University needs a general college. At Carolina they call it the College of Arts and Sciences. Please do not confuse this with the First Year College or a general studies degree. Undergraduates spend their first two years in the general college which includes a curriculum of general education requirements and classes in the field(s) the student wishes to matriculate to.
Our methodology is flawed, and our graduation rates will not improve without dramatic changes. When a high school senior fills out an application, the University is setting that student up for failure. It makes entirely no sense for someone in high school to choose a major before he or she has had the opportunity to experience all the programs and disciplines the University has to offer.
Some would argue allowing freshmen to choose their degree program puts them on a faster curriculum track. This is questionable considering NCSU’s measly 37 percent 4-year graduation rate. In a general college, students identify a degree program they are interested in, and then the students and their advisors tailor each student’s class schedule to meet the matriculation requirements for that department.
If a student is trying to decide between two disciplines, the general college offers the student the opportunity to create a plan to take classes in both subjects that will ultimately count towards both degrees. Students in a single college now have difficulty in doing this because college-specific advisors know very little about other departments.
So in the end, students matriculate into a degree, but find out that is not for them and then they change majors, thus throwing off their graduation dates. Besides dramatically improving graduation rates and lessening internal transfer rates, a general college would improve the allocation of resources, allow greater management of program growth and be a platform to more fully integrate diversity into the curriculum.
Let’s embrace the general college concept and enhance it. It’s time for change in the University’s approach to the undergraduate academic experience.
E-mail Andrew your thoughts about undergraduate academics to letters@technicianonline.com.