A new national higher education report revealed despite progress in educational attainment, graduation rates and the achievement gap continue to hold students back.
The report, released by The American Academy of Arts & Sciences' Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, tracked the graduating high school class of 2004 to reveal national trends in higher education.
“The most relevant topic in higher ed right now is who’s going in and who’s completing,” said Audrey Jaeger, a higher education professor at N.C. State University.
Nationally, 40 percent of students complete a bachelor's degree within four years, and 60 percent graduate within six years.
The UNC system's four-year graduation rates fared slightly better than the national average, with 44 percent of UNC-system students graduating within four years, and 67 percent within six years.
“While North Carolina is doing better than the national average, that still isn’t good enough,” Jaeger said. “We can either be a role model or part of the problem.”
The report also revealed a racial and socioeconomic gap between educational attainment rates.
In 2015, among people aged 25 to 29, 54 percent of white students had earned an associate's degree or higher compared to 31 percent of black and 27 percent of Hispanic students. Thirty-six percent of low-income students earned a bachelor's degree compared to 54 percent of students from high-income families.