NEWS | October 2007
This page includes all articles in the September issue of NEWS. Return to summary or go to the NEWS archive.
Minnesota's private colleges lead in graduation rates
New program aims to help minority students succeed in STEM majors
Health care workforce needs trigger action
Briefs
Minnesota's private colleges lead in graduation rates
Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) institutions have the highest graduation rates in Minnesota. According to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Education, 61 percent of full-time, first-time students at MPCC institutions graduate in four years. This is more than twice the rate of University of Minnesota (U of M) students (30 percent) and more than three times the rate of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) students (21 percent). By the sixth year after enrollment, 71 percent of MPCC first-time, full-time students have completed their degrees compared to 47 percent and 57 percent respectively of their MnSCU and U of M peers.
So why are graduation rates significant? Obviously it costs students, families and taxpayers more when full-time students take longer than four years to earn a degree. Graduation rates can also indicate availability of needed programs and courses, access to and quality of student services and how well an institution recruits students who fit with its mission and are likely to succeed there.
The U.S. Department of Education estimates that 71 percent of freshmen are included in its graduation rate calculations — those who enrolled full-time in a specified term, had never attended college before and intended to earn a bachelor's degree. At MPCC institutions, this included 97 percent of new entering freshmen in fall 2000 (data is collected over a six-year period).
MPCC institutions have the highest graduation rates for students of color in Minnesota as well. Half (49 percent) of MPCC first-time, full-time students of color completed their degrees in four years compared to 13 percent and 21 percent respectively of their MnSCU and U of M peers. At the six-year mark, 61 percent of students of color at MPCC institutions have completed their degree compared to 35 percent and 46 percent respectively of their MnSCU and U of M peers. The lower graduation rates for students of color (PDF) are an ongoing area of concern for educators and policymakers.
For Minnesota's economy, institutional graduation rates are an important indicator for monitoring workforce development. As the Baby Boom generation reaches retirement age, the pool of available workers to satisfy the state's labor demands will diminish, especially among workers with a bachelor's degree (Demographics and Destiny, DEED, 2006). Improving the success of students enrolled in higher education will assist in the production of skilled workers. Increasing the graduation rate of the state's 26,000 new entering students at four-year colleges would significantly augment the state's supply of educated workers.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Education at a Glance 2007 provides data indicating that college attainment rates in the U.S., while leading all participating nations for 55-64 year olds, have dropped significantly as younger cohorts are examined. Of the 30 countries surveyed, nine exceed the U.S. in college education attainment for 25-34 year olds. For the four age cohorts included in the analysis, U.S. college attainment rates have remained the same, ranging from 37 to 40 percent. This is compared to countries that show drastic increases when comparing their oldest and youngest cohort. For example, Korea's college attainment for 55-64 year olds is 10 percent (compared to 37 percent in the U.S.) while 51 percent of their 25-34 year olds have college credentials (compared to the U.S.'s 39 percent).
All 30 major economic countries have made strides in increasing attainment of their younger adults while the U.S. has showed no growth or a decrease in college attainment. As a state and as a country, we need to do better.
New program aims to help minority students succeed in STEM majors
The recent Nobel Conference on the energy debate held at Gustavus Adolphus College didn't just give the public a chance to hear world-class scientists. It also gave a group of minority college students majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) an opportunity to hear these experts — and to meet each other. The students were participating in the kickoff event of a new alliance between 16 public and private colleges and universities in Minnesota, the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Minnesota High Tech Association. Called the North Star STEM Alliance, it aims to double the 2005 total of 138 minority STEM graduates in the next five years. It specifically includes African American, Hispanic/Latino American, and Native American students.
Funded with a $2.45 million grant from the National Science Foundation through its Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Partnership (LSAMP) program, Minnesota becomes the 37th state to take part. Since LSAMP began in 1991, minority enrollment in STEM programs at more than 450 participating institutions has increased dramatically with almost 25,000 additional baccalaureate degrees earned in the STEM fields each year.
Minnesota is increasingly reliant on fields that require degrees in STEM. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development reports that 18 out of the 20 fastest growing occupations will be tied to the STEM disciplines. Yet minority populations are historically underrepresented in these fields. This alliance will help attract more underrepresented students into STEM fields and assist them so that they earn a baccalaureate degree.
Samuel Moore, program director, U of M; Bob Weisenfeld, Gustavus Adolphus College; and Frank Niepold, NOAA.
"This is exciting for students who might need more support than they can get on their individual campuses," said Samuel Moore at the University of Minnesota, who directs the program. "By establishing a community of students across different institutions, they will have more opportunities to network, talk about their research and make informed choices about their field."
Program activities will focus on critical transition points such as from high school to college, from a two-year to a four-year college and from undergraduate to graduate study. For example, summer programs will enable first-year students to take a math or science course and begin to feel part of a community. Similarly, transfer students will be able to take an upper division course during the summer before their first semester.
Students will also have opportunities for undergraduate research, internships, mentoring and exposure to STEM professionals. During the Nobel Conference, Frank Niepold, the Climate Education Coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Program Office joined about 30 students for lunch and shared a few tips. "A STEM degree will open a lot of doors, especially if you get an internship and find mentors." Niepold said. "You can get a greater education than in the classroom if you hang around these people. Sometimes that's when things click."
Bob Weisenfeld, Gustavus Adolphus College assistant vice president, had a role in writing the successful alliance funding proposal. He said that sharing resources, information and experiences will enable institutions to smooth the transition points for students. "Professor Steven Chu — one of the Nobel Conference presenters — talked about the critical role of collaboration in nurturing younger scientists. This alliance is an example of how we are working together to get more students interested in STEM and help twice as many to complete their degrees. We are trying to create a community of underrepresented students that is engaged, supportive and ongoing," he said.
Although students attending the Nobel Conference didn't know what to expect at this initial event, all seemed enthusiastic. "Any opportunity to encourage fellowship is good; sometimes the hardest thing is knowing where to start," said a student from the University of Minnesota-Morris.
Members of the North Star STEM Alliance include: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (lead institution), University of Minnesota-Duluth, University of Minnesota-Morris, Augsburg College, Carleton College, Gustavus Adolphus College, Macalester College, St. Olaf College, Metropolitan State University, Minnesota State University-Mankato, St. Cloud State University, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Century College, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, North Hennepin Community College, Science Museum of Minnesota and the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA).
Health care workforce needs trigger action
It's a looming problem: Minnesota will soon not have enough nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists and other health care providers to take care of the state's residents. Fed by increasing retirements, the provider shortfall is already hitting. Consider registered nurses; by 2020 the gap between supply and demand of RNs is forecast to grow to more than 15,000.
Higher education is key to addressing these provider shortfall forecasts. Colleges and universities are helping in several ways, from breaking through bottlenecks that limit the number of new providers who can be educated to rethinking how health care can best be delivered.
The efforts of Minnesota's private colleges and universities are particularly critical. We award more four-year health care degrees than either the University of Minnesota or the MnSCU system. In 2006 we had 624 undergraduate degree recipients from members of the Minnesota Private College Council; that figure does not include the sizable pre-professional program graduates, who are going on to pursue medicine and other advanced degrees. When private graduate programs are added in, close to 1,000 future health care providers graduate from 10 of our member institutions in a year.
When it comes to responding to the work force challenge, private colleges' unique contributions are tied to their responsiveness. Martha Witrak, dean of nursing, College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, pointed out how private colleges can be nimble about responding to emerging education needs. "It's important to the state to have private colleges be idea incubators for health care," she said.
Consider the partnership St. Scholastica has with Cerner Corp. to use its electronic health record (EHR). Faculty at St. Scholastica have developed this EHR into a robust, state-of-the-art teaching tool; more than 20 other colleges now use it as well. Helping advance the use of EHRs in higher education addresses an important need in health care, a need that is such a priority that it is part of a presidential mandate for improving quality and controlling costs.
The impact of private higher education on health care was demonstrated recently when the College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, announced the goal of increasing its health care graduates by 20 to 30 percent, tied to the reorganization of numerous separate programs into the new School of Health. After 120 years of educating a variety of health care providers, the new school will integrate training across disciplines and foster more partnerships for clinical education. Both will be key to addressing the state's work force challenges.
St. Catherine's ability to find new ways to increase the workforce was demonstrated in its work with Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis. The college was dealing with bottlenecks to educating more students — the difficulty of finding clinical sites to host the students and the necessary faculty to teach them, explained Alice Swan, St. Catherine's associate dean for nursing. The hospital was interested in hiring more of the college's graduates, the likelihood of which increases when students get early exposure to the hospital. After working to find a response, two groups of students are now able to head over to Abbott Northwestern, instead of one. That's possible because the existing faculty member is now complemented by a staff nurse that the hospital frees up to lecture.
Similar partnering around learning opportunities can occur across the world, as well as across town, Swan said. "We can create capacity," she said. "I need faculty here creating curriculum to ensure we're meeting standards. Once we have that set, I can work with various partners to see that we can deliver that education where it is needed."
Bethel nursing students practice on SimMan™, a computerized human
Another key ingredient is technology. Bethel University, for example, recently purchased SimMan™ — a computerized human that can be used to simulate different health care needs. "This provides students with a safe place to practice providing nursing care in acute, life-threatening situations," said Sandy Peterson, Bethel nursing department chair. "And it recognizes the difficulty of getting quality clinical experiences every time students go into a clinical setting."
Students also need to be better prepared for how health care is changing. That's why Bethel is developing a new baccalaureate nursing curriculum that puts a greater emphasis on caring for under-served minority populations, the elderly and the very young, Peterson said. "Given the realities of health care, addressing those kinds of needs requires a student who is able to deal with greater ambiguity and complexity," she said.
New advanced education opportunities are also emerging in private higher education. St. Scholastica's existing doctorate of nursing program will be complemented this fall with a new one at St. Catherine's.
Despite all the effort to increase capacity, however, expanding and improving how future health care providers are educated cannot be the whole answer. Health care sources say we cannot afford to keep delivering care the same way; we need new models that will allow staff and resources to stretch farther. Swan predicted more emphasis on addressing the health of communities, working harder on prevention and helping people take a bigger role in their own health.
Rethinking how health care works is already part of what goes on in private higher education. Consider the Project Homeless Connect event in early October at the Minneapolis Convention Center, where St. Catherine's students provided health care services. Rather than waiting until people are in crisis and need to be taken to emergency rooms, Swan said students helped give appropriate preventive care to a whole population, providing everything from foot soaks to general health assessments.
Similar partnerships with schools, churches and clinics will continue to help private colleges prepare students — and our state — for the future.
Briefs
- The just-released 2007 College Board tuition and student aid reports show that the national average net tuition that private college students pay after grants and tax benefits is $14,400 — about 40 percent less than the average published price of $23,712.
- The I Make It Happen Web site that helps Minnesota middle schoolers begin to plan for college has added an online counselor feature.
- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in his speech on education and economic competitiveness said that "as an investment, education provides excellent returns."
- The updated College Board report, Education Pays 2007 shows that higher education yields significant rewards to both its recipients and society.