Delivering that Cap and Gown?

James Hawkins
July 1, 2021

How much progress have the state’s universities made in delivering on one of their core missions: a diploma for every student?

Cal State Long Beach, San Diego State, Cal Poly Pomona, and San Jose State all saw the largest absolute increases in graduation rates between 1996 and 2017 — 41.1, 38.5, 35, and 30.7 percentage points, respectively. Generally, Cal State Universities made significant progress in graduation rates between 1996 and 2017. By 2017, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s (SLO) graduation rate rivaled, and even exceeded, graduation rates at some UC’s. As a comparison, Stanford’s graduation rate in 2017 still exceeds the rates of any public university in California.

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