The NCAA released its latest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) on Tuesday and Wolfpack athletes posted a rate of 81 percent, the second best tally in school history and just one point off of last year’s record 82 percent. It also posted a Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) of 71 percent.
Each of those marks has improved five of the last six years.
The NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) is designed to reflect the proportion of student-athletes on any given team who earn a college degree within a six-year window of their initial enrollment. The NCAA has imposed a new set of academic standards that seek to hold teams and institutions accountable for how well a student-athlete progresses toward a degree.
The GSR was developed in response to colleges and universities who asked for an alternative rate that more accurately reflects the movement among college student-athletes. The GSR takes into account incoming transfers who graduate from a different institution than the one they started at and transfers who leave an institution in good standing.
The Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) is compiled by the U.S. Department of Education and is used as an indicator of academic success for all college students, including student-athletes. FGR measures the percentage of first-time, full-time freshman who enter in the fall semester and graduate within six years of entering their original four-year institution.
The NCAA developed its GSR in response to criticism that the FGR understates the academic success of athletes because the FGR method does not take into account two important factors in college athletics:
- When student-athletes transfer from an institution before graduating and are in good academic standing (perhaps to transfer to another institution for more playing time, different major, or to go pro); and
- Those student-athletes who transfer to an institution (e.g. from a community college or another 4-year college) and those freshmen who begin college in mid-year and earn a degree.
Recent Graduation Rates
Year GSR FGR
2014 81 71*
2013 82* 63
2012 77 60
2011 74 56
2010 73 57
2009 69 54
*Highest marks in school history
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