Report: Financial Aid Students Completing College At Higher Rates

College students receiving state financial aid are enrolling and completing more credit hours per semester, which puts them on track to graduate in four years, according to a report the Commission for Higher Education released Wednesday.

Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers launched a marketing campaign to encourage college students to take 15 credit hours a semester to graduate in four years. A report released Wednesday shows more students are doing just that. (Photo credit: Gretchen Frazee/WTIU News)

Legislation passed in 2014 requires college students receiving financial aid through the states two major scholarship programs to complete 15 credit hours a semester and 30 hours a year so they can graduate in four years.

State funding for the 21^st Century Scholar program and Frank O’Bannon scholarship stop after four years, so to encourage students to complete their degree while they still have funding, the Commission created an aggressive marketing campaign to make students aware of the requirements.

The report only shows results for one year, but in that time 21^st Century Scholars saw a 56 percent increase in students completing 30 hours per year, and Frank O’Bannon students improved their completion rate by 21 percent.

Higher Education commissioner Teresa Lubbers says communicating this requirement to both students and universities made the difference.

“If you set those expectations in place and you tell students what they need to do, you tell universities this is how we’re going to pay for what we value in Indiana, people change their behaviors,” Lubbers says.

Lubbers says this report is more of a progress report but she is encouraged by the improvement.