Institute for Higher Education Policy Calls on Higher Education Leaders and Lawmakers to Give Greater Attention and Support to “Near-Completer” Students

Washington, D.C., Nov. 3, 2011—Much of the federal, state, and philanthropic effort to raise completion rates has focused on increasing the number of students who are college ready, bolstering support for students who successfully access college, and equipping adults who seek new skills with pathways to quality degrees and credentials with labor market value. However, equal attention must be paid to the phenomenon of “near completers”—a population of former students who may be eligible for either an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, or who may be just shy of the necessary requirements to earn that degree. According to the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP)—which recently held a national convening to help elevate the concept of near completion—there are several approaches that can be employed right now to help this student population take the final steps toward earning a high-quality degree.

In a new brief, Crossing the Finish Line: A National Effort to Address Near Completion, IHEP lays out a framework through which higher education leaders, federal and state policymakers, institutional administrators, and private sector executives can effectively address near completion as part of the larger call for accomplishing America’s goal to increase the number and diversity of people who complete college. Based on a series of focus groups held across the country, a national summit, and individual interviews with a range of key college completion stakeholders, IHEP’s agenda focuses on dealing with four issues that impede the success of near completers:

1. Recruitment: The process states or institutions undertake to identify and reengage students who might be eligible for a degree or who need a few more credits to graduate;
2. Assessment: Both how institutions determine who is eligible for a degree or needs a few more credits to graduate, and recognize credits and other requirements in order to get potentials over the degree threshold
3. Affordability: The non-academic financial holds on the records of eligible students and the financial burden of reenrollment and persistence for potential students; and
4. Recognition of Completion: The formal act of awarding a degree, including which institution has the authority to grant a degree.

“Over the past few decades, many individual institutions have attempted to identify former students and bring them back to campus. While many of these efforts have been successful, the work often has been isolated, small in scale, and targeted toward institutional goals, without informing the broader higher education community,” said IHEP President Michelle Asha Cooper, Ph.D. “However, in response to national calls for increased degree attainment, everyone in the higher education community must work together to advance a comprehensive near-completion strategy that adds value to students, institutions, employers, and our country.”

Successful Approaches to Move Near Completers Toward Degree Completion

The brief includes a number of short-term steps for identifying and graduating near completers. For example, some approaches include:

• Institutional leaders must lead the way in identifying near completers, recruiting them back into college, and offering efficient and effective options for getting them through to graduation. Staff can also improve degree audit systems, create early warning systems, and work with faculty to streamline degree completion plans.
• State systems and regional collaborations must provide better systems for tracking students across institutional and state lines in order to understand the degree to which students have accumulated credit or earned a degree. Systems also play a major role in setting transfer, prior-learning assessment, financial, and degree award policies that govern the degree to which institutions are able to speed near-completer success.
• Employers of near completers can work with institutions to target specialized fields and provide incentives for their employees to complete their degree.
• Others, such as higher education researchers, foundations, community-based organizations, and federal and state policymakers, have a supporting role in better articulating the scope of near completion, identifying and disseminating promising practices for meeting their needs, and making resources available to support near completers.

To highlight near completion work already underway, IHEP writes about several statewide and multistate initiatives that seek to bring near-completion efforts to scale: Its own "Project Win-Win," the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s “Non-Traditional No More,” and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education’s “Project Graduate.”

IHEP officially kicked off its effort to elevate the importance of addressing near completion at its National Summit on Near Completion held on Sept. 13, 2011 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. This event included high-level federal and state policymakers as well as diverse stakeholders from higher education organizations, colleges and universities, and various business sectors whose collective experiences and voices helped shape the brief, Crossing the Finish Line: A National Effort to Address Near Completion.

To download a free copy of Crossing the Finish Line: A National Effort to Address Near Completion or for more information about the National Summit on Near Completion and Project Win-Win, please visit IHEP’s Web site at www.ihep.org.

Below is a highlight video of the National Summit on Near Completion. Photos of the event may also be found at the following link: http://photobucket.com/IHEPnear.