SRU online bachelor program graduation rate ranked among nation’s top 10

Sept. 7, 2016

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - Slippery Rock University ranks among the country's top 10 institutions for online bachelor degree programs with the highest percentage of graduates in a span of six years or less according to data published by U.S. News Short List.

The figures, based on students who enrolled in 2008-2009, reflected a 79.1 percent graduation rate for SRU, ranking the University seventh among the top 10 institutions nationally. SRU was the lone university from Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education to make the list.

"The populations we serve value the types of online programs we offer because of the flexibility that they provide when working school in and around their daily responsibilities of job and family," said Amanda Yale, associate provost of enrollment management.

U.S. News surveyed 1,750 schools for its 2015 survey of online bachelor's degree programs, with institutions self-reporting a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and enrollment.

Among the schools that submitted data for the survey, the University of Missouri - St. Louis was the only online bachelor's program where all students who entered in the 2008-2009 school year completed the program in that time frame. The University of Illinois - Chicago (90.2 percent) and Southwestern Oklahoma State University (90 percent) rounded out the top three.

Of the top 10 online bachelor's programs with the highest rates - seven - were public universities. The remaining three were private schools.

According to the publishers, "The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas."

MEDIA CONTACT: Robb King | 724.738.2199 | robert.king@sru.edu