Students lack clear pathways to graduation and are delayed by insufficient course availability and credits lost in transfer.

According to the Department of Education, fewer than two-thirds of students attending a four-year institution now manage to earn their degree within six years. A new survey by Quottly digs into the reasons for this statistic and finds that three major barriers are causing college students to struggle to graduate on time:  

• Students can’t get the courses they need when they need them. More than half of current students were waitlisted and unable to take at least one class they needed to graduate on time.
• Students struggle with difficult transfer procedures. One-third of current students reported losing at least half their credits in the transfer process.
• Students don’t have clear pathways to graduation. More than a quarter of recent graduates admitted they hadn’t mapped out their degree plan by the beginning of their fourth year.

The results of this survey reinforce three core challenges that the modern student faces in trying to complete their degree on time - course availability, transfer, and degree pathways. New strategies that expand student access to courses, create transparency into how courses transfer across institutions, and help students map and monitor degree progress can make a significant impact in overcoming these barriers to success.  

"The data are clear, but the challenges are not insurmountable. Many colleges and universities are already implementing innovative strategies to remove the barriers to on-time completion,” said Alicia Policinski, Co-Founder and CEO of Quottly. “Course sharing, improved transfer articulation management, and student pathways all help today’s students achieve their academic goals. We are excited to be working with more than 200 institutions to drive transformative change in student success, providing the infrastructure that powers these initiatives.”  

Quottly’s survey of 2,029 current college students and recent graduates, 18–60 years of age, was conducted using SurveyMonkey on June 13–14, 2022.  

To see more results from the survey and to download the infographic, click here.