WKU Athletics Registers Record-High Graduation Rate In Latest NCAA Report
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Athletics has continued its standards for academic excellence, reaching its highest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in program history in the latest report released by the NCAA on Wednesday.
WKU posted an overall GSR of 88, besting each of the last two years of 86 and 87, respectively. WKU has achieved a mark of 85 or higher in five of the last six GSR reports.
Five programs achieved perfect GSR scores of 100, while nine programs recorded a 90 or above.
Volleyball extended its streak of perfect GSR scores to 18 years and has posted a perfect score every year the program has been eligible to report. Women’s tennis posted a perfect GSR score for the ninth straight season and for the 11th time in program history. Women’s soccer posted its sixth-straight perfect score and 12th since 2001.
Women’s golf achieved a perfect score for the fifth straight year and has been perfect six times in program history. Men’s golf posted a perfect score the third straight year.
The GSRs released Wednesday are based on the four freshmen classes in Division I entering from 2013 to 2016. The NCAA calculates the rates based upon the number of student-athletes who graduated within six years after initially enrolling, in addition to those who left an institution prior to graduating but would have been academically eligible to compete.
ABOUT THE NCAA GRADUATION SUCCESS RATE
The Division I Board of Directors created the GSR in 2002 in response to Division I college and university presidents who wanted data that more accurately reflected the mobility of college students beyond what the federal graduation rate measures. The federal rate counts as an academic failure any student who leaves a school, no matter whether he or she enrolls at another school. Also, the federal rate does not recognize students who enter school as transfer students.
The GSR formula removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible and includes student-athletes who transfer to a school after initially enrolling elsewhere. This calculation provides a more accurate appraisal of student-athlete success.
The rate also allows for a deeper understanding of graduation success in individual sports than the federal metric, which provides only broad groupings.
The federal graduation rate, however, remains the only measure to compare all NCAA student-athletes with the general student body at those same universities. Using this measure, student-athletes graduate at the same rate as the student body: 69%. Both student-athletes’ federal graduation rate and the student body rate increased 1 percentage point from last year.
