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from the issue of December 8, 2005
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Report card indicates quality improving at UNL
BY KELLY BARTLING, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
The fourth annual UNL "report card," shows the university met and exceeded several goals on student diversity and quality while increasing research funding.
The report card is the fourth "Indicators of Institutional Quality Annual Report," which measures outcomes as proposed in UNL's guideline for improvement, "A 2020 Vision."
"The record shows that UNL students and faculty members are continuing their pursuit of excellence in areas that reflect our mission and goals," said Barbara Couture, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. "UNL is a premier research institution that is getting better year by year. The quality indicators, while showing there is much work still to do, document this process."
Couture presented the report publicly Dec. 1 and pointed to highlights of increases in external grants and contracts, improved six-year graduation rate, improved numbers of students and faculty/staff from diverse backgrounds, and increased total credit hours delivered by distance education.
"Thanks to their scholarship and dedication, our faculty have achieved substantial gains in obtaining external grants and contracts to support their professional activities," Couture said. "Federal research expenditures - the primary national measure of research productivity - grew to $66.9 million, which marks an extraordinary increase of 77.0 percent since fiscal year 1999-00 and of 13 percent since just last year. Our faculty also excelled in getting new awards. The total sponsored dollars awarded for all activities has nearly doubled since 1997, from $81.1 to $157.8 million."
The report can be reviewed online www.unl.edu/svcaa/2005v2/documents/quality_indicators_2005.pdf.
Couture said the picture that emerges from this report is of a university with many strengths, some areas to improve, and continuing evidence of meeting stated goals. She said most of the trends that were identified in previous reports have continued.
The quality indicators were devised as a way to measure outputs that can be compared consistently and fairly from year to year and to peer universities. The indicators were chosen because of their accordance with the vision of what UNL leaders want the university to be and how they align with stated goals.
2005 Indicators of Quality
Highlights in the 2005 Indicators of Quality Annual Report include:
• The university met the five-year goal of reaching a six-year graduation rate of 60 percent that was established in a 1999 planning presentation to the Board of Regents. Since stating that goal, the six-year graduation rate has risen consistently to 60.8 percent in 2004 from 47 percent in 1999.
• The freshman-to-sophomore retention rate improved to 82 percent in 2004 from 74 percent in 1996. Couture said the university is close, but did not quite reach the goal stated in 1999 of achieving a retention rate of 84 percent by 2004.
• Over the last three years, roughly one-third of graduating students reported having had a meaningful research or creative activity experience while at UNL. This percentage has been relatively stable over the years.
• Federal research expenditures have risen by 77 percent since 1999-2000, which Couture called "remarkable."
• Total sponsored dollars awarded have nearly doubled since 1997, to $157.8 million from $81.1.
• The number of participants in nonresidential credit courses has been increasing consistently since the late 1990s. Participation in credit distance programs has shown a six-fold increase since 1998-1999.
• The proportion of students of color among UNL's undergraduate population continues to increase steadily. "This proportion remains comparatively low," Couture said in her report, " but the rate of change at UNL has outpaced the average of our peers since fall 1996."
• The percentage of tenured/tenure-track faculty members who are female or people of color continues to increase. Between fall semester 1996 and fall semester 2004, the percent of female faculty has increased less than the percent of faculty of color (2.7 percent vs. 5.8 percent).
GO TO: ISSUE OF DECEMBER 8
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Report card indicates quality improving at UNL
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