ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA — Winthrop University has recorded its highest 6-year graduation
rate for the 2013 first-time freshman cohort which will be reported to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System next year. Through December 2018, 61.4 percent of students who entered the university
as freshmen in fall 2013 have graduated within six years. There is still room for
that number to increase as more students in the cohort could graduate this spring
or summer, so the final rate will likely be higher.
“This year’s rate is the highest ever, or at least the highest as far back as we have data to compare,” said President Dan Mahony. “Improving our already strong graduation rate is a priority for Winthrop, and this success signals that we will surpass our own 2025 graduation rate target of 61 percent that is among the metrics in our Winthrop Plan.”
This year’s graduation rate will eclipse the former record-setting cohort from fall 2003, which stood at 59.7 percent.
Winthrop already outperforms many of its in-state peers in graduation rates, according to the statistical abstract of the S.C. Commission on Higher Education. In the most recent abstract (2017), Winthrop exceeds the average for public comprehensive teaching institutions for the 2010 cohort for 4-year, 5-year and 6-year graduation rates. In addition, Winthrop’s three-year average for 6-year graduation rates beats the average for similar schools.
The time to graduation also is decreasing for Winthrop students. Since 2013, the percentage of students graduating in four years or less has gone from 35.9 percent to 46.5 percent, an increase of more than 10 percentage points.
“Decreasing the time to graduation is important to our students and their families and helps to lower student debt and gets them into the workforce or on to graduate school more quickly,” Mahony said.
“These achievements would not be possible without the work of the Winthrop community in creating a supportive, inclusive environment for every student to succeed,” Mahony said. “We have found that, in order to graduate students at a higher rate than some of our peers, our efforts must focus on how to best retain all of our students and help them persevere when they face academic and other obstacles.”
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at longshawj@winthrop.edu or at 803/323-2404.
