ASU signs pledge to boost degree completion by 2025


Arizona State University has joined several hundred other four-year institutions in a signed pledge to help the nation attain a goal of 60 percent of adults possessing a college degree by 2025.

Through Project Degree Completion: A Public University Initiative, ASU along with 490 public colleges and universities, have committed to increasing the number of undergraduate baccalaureate degrees by 3.8 million in the next 14 years. The institutions plan on increasing the number of college degrees they award from an estimated 14.6 million to 18.4 million by 2025. Collectively, public institutions award just over 1 million degrees annually.

The participating institutions are members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU). Their membership represents nearly all the four-year public colleges and universities in the country.

The initiative calls for a commitment to accessibility, affordability and quality public higher education for all students as well as a renewed partnership among public colleges and universities, the states and federal government as they work to achieve the following goals

• To strive for the “best in the world” degree status for America by achieving a 60 percent degree attainment for all adults by 2025. This achievement will be publicly tracked.

• To make a concerted effort to reach out to former students who have attended public institutions but have not earned a baccalaureate degree.

• To assure that educational quality is enhanced, not compromised, in the effort to increase degree attainment.

• To constrain per-student educational expenditures while pursuing enhanced quality.

• To work closely with P-12 systems and community colleges, especially in the STEM fields and other areas of critical need.

• To support economic growth in all regions, states and countries including research and innovation, commercialization of technologies, and economic development.

This new initiative has already garnered key support from outside the higher education community including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation and John Engler, president of Business Roundtable.

For more information on the Project Degree Completion: A Public University Initiative, visit https://www.aplu.org/