UCR’s six-year graduation rate is its highest ever

UC Riverside’s six-year graduation rate has hit 77.3 percent, breaking last year’s record of 76 percent, according to data released last week.

The school’s underrepresented minority students who began classes as freshman in 2014 also performed well: 81.8 percent of Asian students graduated by 2020, as well as 78.4 percent of whites, 78.1 percent of African-Americans, 73.7 percent of Latinos and 62.5 percent of American Indians and Pacific Islanders, the school’s Office of Institutional Research reported.

Nationwide, the six-year graduation rate this year among college and university students was 63.4 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

“UCR is within the top 15% of institutions in the United States in terms of its overall graduation rate, and is especially strong at graduating students of diverse backgrounds at near parity,” said Scott Heil, UC Riverside’s assistant vice chancellor for Institutional Research, in the statement. “Other universities looking to raise the graduation rates of their underrepresented students could do well to follow UCR’s lead.”

A six-year graduation rate is considered a sign of excellence in higher education, according to the statement.