While the state's public four-year universities are seeing increases in graduation rates, its private universities are experiencing downward trends.
This year, the state Department of Higher Education released for the first time graduation rates for the state's 11 private and independent colleges and universities.
The rates for the private universities are still higher than the state's public institutions, at 51 percent of 3,279 first-time students in 2009 graduating six years later. The statewide average for public universities was 40 percent.
As a comparison, for the 2005 class, 55.4 percent of 2,543 students entering a private college graduated six years later, the Higher Education Department said.
"We know there are differences between publics and privates," said Higher Education Department Director Brett Powell. "There are differences in how they accept students. If you accept students with better credentials, you are more likely to get them toward a degree."
First-time students entering a private college or university usually have higher scores on the ACT college admissions exam, department data show.
Of the private and independent colleges, Crowley's Ridge College in Paragould had the lowest six-year graduation rate at 17.7 percent of the 62 students entering in 2009, department data show.
On the other end, Hendrix College in Conway had the highest rate at 70.9 percent of the 433 students entering for the first time in 2009.
But, the downward trends don't necessarily reflect the college's push to graduation, Powell said. It could include students who transfer to public universities because of finances, he said.
More telling -- both for private and public colleges and universities -- is the success rate, he added.
Of the 15,193 students entering a public university in 2009, 40 percent graduated from their home institutions six years later, 6.2 percent graduated from another institution, 5.9 percent are still enrolled in their home institutions and 10.2 percent are enrolled in another institution, according to department data.
In that same year, 37.8 percent dropped out -- though that number could include transfers to colleges of universities out of state, Powell said. In total, the group had a 62.2 percent success rate.
Of the 3,279 students entering a private college or university in 2009, 51 percent graduated from their home institutions six years later, 4.6 percent graduated from another institution, 1.9 percent were still enrolled in that private college or university, and 8.6 percent are enrolled in another institution, department data show. That group has an overall success rate of 66 percent.
"This is I think the most important thing is the success rate of the campus," Powell said. "We need to get people to degrees, obviously, but as long as they're still making an attempt, there's still a chance we can get them to a degree."
SundayMonday on 05/24/2015