A new coalition of 11 large public research universities plans to work together on techniques to improve their graduation rates, particularly for lower-income students.
Dubbed the University Innovation Alliance, the group hopes to dial back the hyper-competitiveness and quest for exclusivity in higher education that can stymie collaboration on how to help students get to graduation. (See boxes for a list of participating universities and details on their collective enrollment.)
"We're not getting there by all flying solo," Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University and the former Republican governor of Indiana, said during an event here on Monday to announce the alliance.
The 11 universities are spread out around the country. Together they enroll about 380,000 undergraduates, which is roughly 20 percent of the overall student population at large research universities. Their six-year graduation rates for bachelor's degrees range from 51 to 82 percent, with an average of 68 percent. That average drops to 63 percent for students from minority groups.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/17/university-innovation-alliance-kicks-big-completion-goals