Charlottesville, Va., June 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the University of Virginia School of Engineering & Applied Science sends the Class of 2018 off to careers and graduate school, this year’s commencement is particularly meaningful. An analysis of U.S. four-year, public engineering school graduation rates shows that UVA produces the highest, on-time graduation rate of undergraduate engineering students among peer institutions nationwide.
According to the American Society for Engineering Education’s “Retention and Time to Graduation Survey,” in which 81 U.S. public engineering schools participated, 83 percent of students who enroll in UVA’s Engineering School earn their undergraduate degrees in four years. Compare this with the national four-year graduation rate for all engineering schools that responded to ASEE’s survey (111 public and private schools): 33 percent. And the national average on-time graduation rate for all public four-year institutions (not just engineering schools) is just 35 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
“Our mission is to make the world a better place by preparing engineering leaders who will solve global challenges and contribute to a strong economy,” said UVA Engineering Dean Craig H. Benson. “We take this responsibility very seriously. I am proud of our collegial environment, which supports our students’ success.”
UVA Engineering’s graduation rate as reported to ASEE does not include students who also graduate in four years but have transferred to a non-engineering degree program within the comprehensive University of Virginia. For all students who start at UVA Engineering and earn a bachelor’s degree from the University in four years, the graduation rate is 89 percent.
The ASEE survey also reveals that UVA Engineering offers the top graduation rate among surveyed, public engineering schools for Hispanic, Asian, African-American and multi-racial students—and is in the top 10 percent for its graduation rate for women. These figures are from a survey regarding the 2015 graduating cohort. UVA’s graduation rates for the 2018 graduating cohort will become available after summer 2018 students earn their degrees, and ASEE is preparing to release results of another survey in the near future.
“The admissions process for UVA Engineering is extremely competitive, so we make a commitment to the students who work hard and earn admission that we’re going to do everything we can to help them succeed,” said Professor Maite Brandt-Pearce, UVA Engineering’s executive associate dean for academic affairs. “We don’t believe in weed-out classes; we want everyone to make it.”
Students’ success at UVA Engineering starts immediately in their first year, when all entering, prospective engineers receive advising through their mandatory Introduction to Engineering courses. In these courses, students are exposed to the skills and experiences they will need to succeed in the program—and, more broadly, they learn what it means to become an engineer in a society that desperately needs them to solve some of its biggest challenges.
UVA Engineering is particularly conscious of the supports that students may need if they are entering from populations that are typically underrepresented in engineering, such as students who are the first in their families to attend college, women, African-Americans and Hispanics. These future engineers have the opportunity to participate in a summer “bridge” program that includes orientations and sessions to gain critical academic skills.
“We want our students to be ready for their first semester,” Brandt-Pearce said. “We want to make them really feel welcome and that we are here to support them—and that they are not on their own.”
Once students choose their engineering majors in the spring of their first year at UVA, they are assigned to within-major advisors. An embedded career development team also “engages with students starting in their first year to help them design their curriculum and their future careers—and to think about their lives as something they are able to design,” Brandt-Pearce said.
“We also have a dedicated director of undergraduate success whose whole job is to take care of the students so that no one falls between the cracks.”
The University also has embedded an associate dean of students and a counseling and psychological services professional within the Engineering School to support students’ mental health, an increasingly important issue that institutions of higher education are grappling with across the country.
“We follow each student through the program, offering tutoring and mentoring to students who feel like they need extra help,” Brandt-Pearce said. “We also employ a great number of undergraduate teaching assistants, who are very aware of what their peers’ struggles are—and proactively address how a student might misunderstand the material.
“I am tremendously proud of what our students have accomplished, and grateful to our faculty and staff for their commitment to our students’ success.”
About UVA Engineering: As part of the top-ranked, comprehensive University of Virginia, UVA Engineering is one of the nation’s oldest and most respected engineering schools. Outstanding students and faculty from around the world choose UVA Engineering because of our growing and internationally recognized education and research programs, focused on developing interdisciplinary solutions to global challenges. Our mission is to make the world a better place by creating and disseminating knowledge and by preparing future engineering leaders. Learn more at engineering.virginia.edu.
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Elizabeth Thiel Mather University of Virginia School of Engineering 434-924-1381 emather@virginia.edu
