Ryan Murphy
News Editor
VCU plans to roll out a new degree-auditing system beginning next spring to better help students understand their degree progress and keep advisers informed between departments, according to Seth Sykes, the Associate Dean of VCU’s University College.
The system, called DegreeWorks and purchased by the university about a year ago, has three parts meant to help students know where they stand and how best to finish their degrees. The first stage will tell students where they are in the course of their degree and what is left for them to complete. The second stage, which won’t be available until the 2013-2014 school year, will help students plot remaining classes on a schedule. Finally, a program for prospective transfer students will allow them to input their current credits and see what will carry over to VCU, and where in a given degree program their current progress would put them.
The current degree evaluation system has been the subject of some concern from both students and advisers. Accessible through eServices, there is an option to show detailed information about what requirements have already been met and with which classes. Any unfulfilled sections are highlighted by a red “Not Met” tag.
“(Degree evaluation) is not easy to understand and interpret, I think that’s the main reason for dissatisfaction,” Sykes said. “I think also, there was some concerns about its accuracy … if there is a lack of confidence and students aren’t using it, then it really is not working.” He hopes that students will have more confidence in the new system, which is currently being used by faculty and advisors to ensure its accuracy before being introduced to students.
“We want students to graduate in four years … that six-year graduation rate had been going up, we just want to see it improved immensely and DegreeWorks is one initiative that we hope will help with that,” he said. The program is part of a larger initiative to help improve VCU’s graduation rates. According to the State Council for Higher Education, VCU has a 50.41 percent six-year-or-less graduation rate, but is still below the national average. According to the National Center for Education website, 58 percent of first-time, full-time students starting in 2004 seeking a bachelor’s degree at a four-year institution graduated within six years.
Paige Baxter, a senior mass communications major, said that VCU’s eServices system currently tells her she’s on track to graduate in the spring of 2015. She says that despite setbacks and trouble getting the correct information, she plans to finish this coming May.
“I thought I had everything figured out freshman year … some classes weren’t entirely clear on the graduation worksheet,” she said, something that the second stage of the new system is meant to address. However, Baxter has not only had issues with the web services, but the advisers themselves.
“I’ve had a lot of issues with counseling … I feel like I’m jumping through hoops to get information, and the information I receive is wishy-washy and not direct,” Baxter said.
Sykes said that communication between advisers and departments is another part of the university’s efforts to help get students graduated quickly. A group called the Advising Council now meets each semester to keep all academic advisers aware of what’s going on in the university.
“We know from student comments that there’s a lot of concerns … about advising,” Sykes said.
The group had their first meeting in February of the Spring 2012 semester and their second on Sept. 27. According to Sykes, the group is meant to be a forum for the university to distribute information to advisers and to have advisors from different programs interact.
Sykes said that the university hopes all of the parts of the initiative will culminate in a concerted process that helps students move through the university faster.
“If we’re equipping advisers better, that will trickle down to students so students are getting advised better and they can move toward graduating in four years,” he said. “That’s what we hope.”
As for the degree audit system at the center of it all, the university has tentative plans to start holding demonstration sessions to familiarize students with the new software as early as November and continuing into the next semester.