New Cal Answers Reports Now Available: Graduation, Retention and Time to Degree

January 11, 2016

We're excited to announce three new dashboard reports in the Student Demographics and Outcomes subject area. These dashboards make it easier to compare student data, find answers to questions about student graduation and retention rates, and see trends.

Graduation, Retention and Time to Degree dashboard

  • Undergraduate Graduation Rates by Multiple Fields
  • Undergraduate Retention by Multiple Fields
  • Undergraduate Time to Degree

Graduation and Retention
The first two expand on the existing “UG Grad Rates” and “UG Retention” tabs and allow for a more detailed breakdown of the data by different student characteristics simultaneously. For example, instead of running separate reports for each gender and race/ethnicity combination, the new tabs can display retention and graduation data for all of those combinations at once. Similarly, data for undergraduates across all of the Schools and Colleges can be compared in one table, rather than in multiple reports. The new way to view the data facilitates comparisons between units and between student characteristics and may help illuminate trends.

The new graduation and retention reports answer questions such as:

  • What are the retention and graduation rates over time of students across various demographic characteristics?
  • What percentage of new students in a given College (e.g., Letters & Science) persist at Berkeley beyond their first or second year? What percentage graduate within four years?

Time to Degree
The undergraduate time-to-degree data is new to Cal Answers and is available down to the  major level. Two time-to-degree metrics are available: enrolled semesters and elapsed time.

The Time to Degree report answers questions such as:

  • How long did it take undergraduate degree recipients to graduate? What was their mean and median time-to-degree?
  • How does undergraduate time to degree vary across academic units (e.g., colleges, departments) and/or by major type (e.g., single, double)?

Watch the new video on Determining Undergraduate Time to Degree. Additional instructional videos by subject matter  are available on the Cal Answers training page.

If you have questions about Cal Answers, please contact the Help Desk at 
calanswers-help@berkeley.edu.

Thank you,
The Cal Answers Team