West Virginia Higher Education Chancellor Dr. Paul Hill says a new higher education master plan will put more emphasis on the retention of college students in the Mountain State.
Dr. Hill told a group of state lawmakers Monday the efforts will be focused on the first and second year of college. He says that’s where the numbers show that students decide not to return. He called it “cracks in the pipeline.”
“Our focus is going to be between entering college and the sophomore year in the new master plan,” Hill told a joint education committee. “We will try to address, once a student comes across the threshold, everything we can (to keep them).”
Chancellor Hill says current statistics show out of every 100 9th grade students in the state, 72 will graduate from high school, 43 of those will enter college but only 28 of those 43 will be back for their second year. Hill says only 17 of the 43 students will earn a degree in six years.
Hill says the new retention efforts will include offering students extra help in math and other difficult subjects.
The chancellor also told committee members that while the Promise Scholarship has been a great help to many students in the last 10-plus years many West Virginia high school graduates still have to borrow money to go to college here.
“Fifty-two percent of all students borrow on any given year and the average debt taken out each year is around 7-thousand dollars per student,” Hill said.
The higher education report was part of the legislature’s interim committee meetings that are taking place at the state capitol ahead of Wednesday’s beginning of the 60-day regular session.