Dear Colleague,

Welcome to AIRE Connect, a newsletter series highlighting the data and tools available to support academic and administrative leaders on the Lawrence and Edwards campuses. 

In this edition, we focus on retention and graduation rates. For an overview of these metrics, including definitions and the data lifecycle, please refer to the first edition of Open AIRE, our new data literacy newsletter.

Why do retention and graduation rates matter? 

Retention and graduation rates are important measures of student success. As key metrics guiding Jayhawks Rising and KU's Student Success Model, they help us understand how many students return to KU each year and how long they take to complete their degrees. This data helps university leaders reflect on barriers that may be hindering degree completion and identify the strategies needed to help retain KU students and propel them towards graduation. 

Retention and graduation rates are also valuable for evaluating student success initiatives in your role as a dean, department chair, director of an academic unit, or vice provost.

Retention rates show how many students return to programs and KU each year, as well as the percentage who do not. Why do some students not return? Are there any identifiable patterns why students leave? What additional support could be offered to keep students in programs and at KU? 

Graduation rates (also called completion rates) show how long students take to complete their degrees. What barriers might be preventing students from graduating earlier? What support could be provided to improve graduation rates? 

How can I access this data? 

Below, you will find information about key retention and graduation rates dashboards available on our two enterprise platforms: Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) and Visual Analytics. Single sign-on is required to access dashboards in OAC, and a VPN connection is required to access dashboards in Visual Analytics if you are not on campus.

The featured dashboards are available to all deans, chairs, directors of academic units, and vice provosts. If you need access to these dashboards and don't currently have it, please contact AIRE-help@ku.edu. 

FERPA training is required to access these dashboards. If you haven't completed FERPA training yet, please review the information on this KU Registrar's webpage and follow the link to take the course. 

Retention and graduation rates data will be updated again after the 20th day census (September 23) and should be available in the dashboards during the first week of October.

As ever, please reach out to me (corinne-bannon@ku.edu) with feedback or questions.

Best wishes, 

Corinne Bannon  | Vice Provost of AIRE and Chief Data Officer

The 20th day census snapshot will be taken on September 23.

The Kansas Board of Regents requires that enrollment figures must not be shared publicly before the KBOR official press release, which will likely be in the first week of October. 

AIRE Connect also provides you with a reminder of important data-related dates and AIRE updates. Scroll down to find this information ↓

AIRE develops and maintains multiple retention and graduation rates dashboards. 

Below you will find a selection of dashboards that can help you answer key questions.  

Single sign-on is required to access dashboards in OAC, and a VPN connection is required to access dashboards in Visual Analytics if you are not on campus.

1) Do students who start in my unit retain at KU? Are there any retention gaps in my unit? 

Retention and Graduation Rates - First Time Freshmen

Dashboard in Visual Analytics (VA)

This dashboard provides retention and graduation rates for cohorts of first-time freshmen from 2003, allowing you to identify trends. The data can be filtered by school, term, and various student characteristics. 

We recommend that you start by setting the 'School' filter for your unit.

Next, use the 'Group by' filter located under the dashboard's title to compare retention and graduation rates by various student characteristics to help identify any retention gaps. 

2) What are the retention and graduation rates in programs? 

Retention Rates by Academic Programs

Graduation Rates by Academic Programs

Academic Leadership Dashboard in OAC

The Academic Leadership Dashboard provides retention and graduation rates for students in programs at the level of academic plans.

These retention rates dashboards provide an average retention rate based on data from the last three cohorts of students, which you can compare to institutional averages. This data helps you identify any academic plans that may need focused improvement or those that are retaining at above-average rates. You can explore this data for first-time, transfer, and graduate students. 

These graduation rates dashboards show the percentage of students who graduate within four and six years for the last three cohorts, also at the level of academic plans. This data is available for first-time, transfer, master's, and doctoral students. 

3) How do KU's retention and graduation rates compare to our peers?

 Retention and Graduation Rates Comparisons

Dashboard in Visual Analytics (VA)

This retention and graduation rates comparisons dashboard shows how KU compares to select peers in one-year retention rate, admission rate, and graduation rate data.

The Pell Graduation Gap view shows the difference between overall graduation rates and those for Pell recipients at KU compared to select peers. 

If you have any questions about these dashboards, please reach out to AIRE-help@ku.edu

At this year's Provost's retreat, the Provost's Office and AIRE collaborated with Cathy Cassidy from the Matrix Management Institute to explore integrating matrix management concepts into KU's strategic planning. The new strategic alignment framework, building on the existing model, will be finalized and published in October. Many current institutional processes align with the existing framework; guidance on adapting to the revised framework will be provided in October.

In July, the Payments Insights dashboard was launched in OAC. Developed in collaboration with the CFO and finance offices, Payment Insights provides campus users with meaningful data around all payments made by KU, such as the length of time it takes to collect receipts, create invoices, create reimbursement reports, and process workflow approvals. Additionally, the dashboard provides the necessary data to identify bottlenecks in the various processes and monitor the success of process changes.

Graduate Student Experience Survey (GSES) 2024 (March 5 - April 2) 

- 30% response rate.

- A results dashboard is drafted and an advisory committee is being formed to review the results and steer the process to create recommendations. Ric Steele (Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Studies) will chair the committee. 

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) 2024 (Feb 22 - May 13)

- 23.7% response rate.

- NSSE will share the results with KU in September.

- Kim Warren (Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education) will chair the NSSE 2024 advisory committee.  

Campus Constituent Survey Implementation Team

- The team provided updates to the survey recommendations tracking document in June.

- The Provost sent an email update to faculty and staff on August 14.  

AIRE is transitioning to TDX to manage tickets sent to AIRE-help@ku.edu. Campus users will notice a small change in the appearance of replies to their inquiries, but the process will remain the same.

AIRE has updated the Student Surveys of Teaching webpage. 

AIRE is currently coordinating with the Lawrence and Medical Center financial aid offices to submit data for new federal Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment requirements due on 10/1/2024.

AIRE is currently reviewing responses to our request for proposals for data documentation repository software. This important project will bring campus-wide access to data documentation and improve shared knowledge regarding KU's data.