Definition: The percentage of unique courses offered that are balanced with student need, defined as having an enrollment ratio between 70% and 95%
Service: Strategic Scheduling
In 2016, the California State University (CSU) system launched Graduation Initiative 2025 to “increase graduation rates, eliminate equity gaps in degree completion, and meet California’s workforce needs.” A core element of this strategy centers on improving course capacity and meeting high student demand for core classes. To take advantage of the opportunity, CSU institutions partnered with Ad Astra to assist with improving course access and, ultimately, graduation rates. Redefining paths to graduation allowed CSU partners to identify bottlenecks and allocate resources, which helped lead to immediate improvements in retention and graduation rates. Additionally, the California State University Office of the Chancellor recognized that students infrequently get the courses they need to progress in their academic journey, and that investing in additional course sections can remove barriers to student success. To help with this, Ad Astra has partnered with 11 CSU institutions to support Graduation Initiative 2025 by strategically identifying and adding the courses that students need most to graduate on time.
When we began working with the CSU system, we identified a few areas of improvement by analyzing some key metrics. If you are interested in learning more about these metrics, check out our key terms.
By implementing strategies focused on Graduation Initiative 2025, CSU institutions added 4,300 new course sections to increase course capacity and improve degree velocity. Ad Astra’s Higher Education Scheduling Index (HESI), a database for course scheduling that tracks 50 variables related to course scheduling patterns and institutional activity, found CSU partners improved critical areas in the course schedule that led to significant impacts on individual campuses. CSU partners continue to leverage Ad Astra’s services and solutions to achieve state and institution goals.
Through better alignment of advising and course access, CSU Long Beach has already increased graduation to 33 percent from 16.7 percent in 2016 and continues to drive closer to their goal of 35 percent each term.
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