With the goal of significantly increasing the number of graduates by the year 2025, the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities (APLU) has launched an unprecedented nationwide collaborative effort.
“When you look at degree completion among public [institutions] in this country, you’ve got some great stories,” said Peter McPherson, president of APLU. “Within states there are some really good stories of state universities. But there is not a national story; there’s not a national benchmark.
“If you have a hundred universities with millions of students, we’ll be able to present not an absolute, complete national story, but a substantial national story. We need to make that case with the commitment to increase degrees and to close achievement gaps. We want to get data to show where we are.”
APLU announced last week a comprehensive national effort involving 100 public research universities. Clusters of eight to 10 institutions each will work collaboratively with the goal of producing hundreds of thousands more graduates by the year 2025. The clusters will develop, refine and scale innovative practices designed to both increase graduation rates and close achievement gaps.
Key data from each cluster will be shared within the clusters and then proven practices will be shared throughout higher education.
Graduation rates and achievement gaps long have been issues addressed by APLU, and interventions and ideas have been presented. McPherson said it has become clear that interest in degree completion has significantly increased in recent years. There is a broad commitment across institutions, and greater openness to collaboration in developing new ideas.
APLU’s recently launched Center for Public University Transformation (CPUT) will serve as the support system for the transformation clusters. The processes and procedures are presently being put in place. A national advisory council of leaders in higher education is being assembled for CPUT.
