Key Performance Indicators
Retention Rates
The National Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)* defines full-time retention rates as the number of full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students who enter the institution for the first-time in the fall and who return to the same institution the following fall (as either full-or-part-time), divided by the total number of full time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates in the fall of first entrance. For 4-year institutions offering a bachelor’s degree, this rate is reported only for those first-time students seeking a bachelor’s degree.
Note: Current IPEDS definition of retention rates focus on students seeking a bachelor's degree. Therefore, the numbers exclude students pursuing an associate degree (such as Nursing or Health Professions) or a transfer program. For this reason, the number of students reported in each year's cohort numbers is considerably smaller than the entire freshman class for the year.
Graduation Rates
IPEDS Definition**: Graduation rates are those developed to satisfy the requirements of the Student Right-to-Know and Higher Education Opportunity Acts and are defined as the total number of individuals from a given cohort of full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates who completed a degree or certificate within a given percent of normal time (for the degree or certificate), divided by the entire cohort of full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates minus any allowable exclusions.
Note: The current IPEDS definition of graduation rates can be faulted for its inability to describe true student success in cases of high student mobility. Adventist colleges and universities tend to have comparatively lower graduation rates precisely because of high student mobility since they serve a national and international denominational constituency. PUC's transfer-out rate is 30-40%, which is above the median for both national private non-profit institutions and Adventist institutions. At the same time, approximately equal numbers of students transfer in. As a result, the size of a typical PUC graduating class is about 70% of the size of its freshman class.