Report Released by Gov. Deal Hopes to Increase Number of Georgians Earning a Degree

Governor Nathan Deal has recently released a report that details plans to add an additional 250,000 post secondary graduates to the state's rolls by 2020. This report is part of Gov. Deal's initiative Complete College Georgia and  affects institutions in the University System of Georgia and Technical College System of Georgia.

In a press release from the University System of Georgia, Lynne Weisenbach, USG's vice chancellor for Educational Access and Success stated, "The plans are a signal of the immense effort to date, a renewed and strengthened focus on access and graduation, and a commitment to continue and expand the work over the coming years. Increasing Georgia’s college completion rate is not something that can be changed overnight and is about the learning process to continually improve and find what works.”

Weisenbach also believes that efforts will have a positively affect the affordibility of college by decreasing the amount of time it takes to earn a degree and by providing students the options of attending school while working, serving their country and raising a family.

The campus plans also address various ways technology and online learning may be used to attract new student populations and the ease in which students may be able to transfer between different systems and schools. A final issue addressed in the plans involves giving college credit to students who have significant life experiences that factor into their potential.

Highlights from how the plan will be instituted at the University of Georgia includes a design to build out data analytics capacity and improve the understanding of differences between those who complete college sooner rather than later. Emphasis will be directed toward focusing on four and five-year graduation rates which will enable faculty and staff to address the issues of students who take longer to graduate and in effect may not complete college.

More information on the Complete College Georgia report is available online.