An analysis of B.S.E.E. degree completion time at Ohio University

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2003 by Giesey, Jeffrey J, Manhire, Brian

III. RESULTS

The average, median, minimum and maximum time-to-degree values are given in Table 1. Also shown in Table 1 are these values for the number of full-time, part-time, and co-op quarters enrolled by students. The equivalent study quarters were found by adding the number of full-time quarters to one-half the number of part-time quarters. Students averaged 7 quarter credit-hours per part-time quarter which is approximately one-half of the typical load. The number of quarters that a student did not take courses (null quarters) was also recorded. A cumulative distribution of the time-to-degree for students is shown in Table 2 and the cumulative distribution for total quarters enrolled is shown in Table 3. Only 18.9 percent of the students completed their degrees in four years or less and only 9.0 percent of the students completed their degrees within the traditional 12 quarters of full-time study.

Along with ACT composite score and GPA at graduation, the average number of years and quarters-to-degree are shown in Table 4 for all students and selected sub-populations. These include the top and bottom quartile of students based on GPA, students who had earned credit prior to enrolling in college, and students who had ESL credit. Also analyzed were students with non-ESL remedial course credit, those who had credits not applicable due to transferring colleges or changing majors, and students who had more than one quarter of co-op experience. Finally, data was obtained for the seven students who took more than one quarter off in an academic year more than once. These students were designated as "stopping out" students. In the table, the subpopulation values that differ significantly from the aggregate are marked with an asterisk (one-tailed t-test, p

Table 5 shows the results of the credit analysis described above divided by subpopulation and category. Again, the subpopulation values that differ significantly from the aggregate are marked with an asterisk.

IV. DISCUSSION

Based on the data collected, the list of potential causes of longer than expected time-to-degree were divided into three categories: factors that had an effect on all or a majority of the students, factors that were not significant to the student population as a whole but greatly affected some sub-populations, and those factors that seemed to not cause a significant delay in the time-to-degree of students.

The most significant reason for increased time-to-degree appears to be the difference between the credit-hours that students attempted and the credit-hours students earned due to failing, withdrawing from, and repeating courses. Students averaged 12.1 credit-hours in involuntary repeating (credits failed and mandatory repeats) and another 10.3 credit-hours in voluntary repeating or withdrawal (withdrawal passing and withdrawal failing). This represents well over one quarter's work.

The next biggest contribution to delayed graduation was free electives. Despite the absence of free electives in the program, the average student took 13.4 credit-hours of them. The impact of this factor was closely followed by course load. The average student attempted only an average of 50.0 credit-hours per year in the first four years of their program. However, in order to graduate in four years, a student must average 53.3 credit-hours toward their degree annually. This represented a 13.2 hour deficit over four years. Together these three factors accounted for 49 credit-hours or 2.8 of the 3.6 quarters that students took over the normal 12.