National Student Clearinghouse Research Center releases annual report on “Undergraduate Degree Earners”

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Each year, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center releases a study titled Undergraduate Degree Earners, which “provides a demographic and educational profile for all students graduating with an undergraduate credential each year.” This year’s report, released in April, focused on 2018-2019 graduates who earned certificates, associate degrees, or bachelor’s degrees. Here are some of the interesting findings:

• The number of students who have earned an undergraduate credential has increased from 3.4 million in 2012-13 to 3.7 million in 2018-19, a 7% increase.
• 26% of the degree earners in 2018-19 had already earned a previous degree, which accounts for much of the overall increase.
• Over the past six years, the number of traditional college-age (25 and younger) students who earned a degree for the first time increased by 18%, whereas the number of older graduates decreased by 22%.
• The number of women who were first-time earners of an undergraduate degree outnumbered men by 165,731.
• For 4-year nonprofit private institutions, the number of first-time undergraduate degree earners increased by 3.3% over the previous year, which is an improvement over the 0.1% increase of the year before.