Women’s basketball is one of four UTSA teams to achieve perfect Graduate Success Rate scores. (Jeff Huehn/UTSA Athletics)
NOVEMBER 19, 2020 — The NCAA has released its latest Division I Graduation Success Rate data, and UTSA Athletics reported a GSR of 83%, the highest in department history.
The report also saw UTSA establish two additional department standards with a four-class average of 62% and a single-year graduation rate for the 2013–2014 cohort of 65%.
UTSA’s record-setting 83% GSR comes on the heels of earning a GSR of 82% in each of the previous two reports. The department now has shown an increase in its GSR from 66% to 83% over the last eight reports, including logging a GSR of 80% or better in each of the last six.
Four sports—women’s basketball, women’s golf, women’s tennis and volleyball—each posted perfect GSRs in the latest report to rank at the top of Conference USA, while baseball and football stood third and fourth, respectively, among league schools in those respective sports.
“We are extremely proud that UTSA student-athletes continue to set new standards for their academic work,” UTSA Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Lisa Campos said. “It is very encouraging to see our GSR continue to trend in an upward direction to what is now the best figure in our department’s history in this latest report. This accomplishment reflects the hard work put in by our student-athletes and our academic services staff to help develop champions in the classroom.”
The Division I board of directors created the GSR in 2002 in response to Division I college and university presidents who wanted data that more accurately reflected the mobility of college students beyond what the federal graduation rate measures. The federal rate counts as an academic failure any student who leaves a school, even if the student enrolls at another school. Also, the federal rate does not recognize students who enter school as transfer students.
The GSR formula removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible and includes student-athletes who transfer to a school after initially enrolling elsewhere. This calculation provides a more accurate appraisal of student-athlete success.
The rate also allows for a deeper understanding of graduation success in individual sports than the federal metric, which provides only broad groupings.
The federal graduation rate, however, remains the only measure to compare student-athletes with the general student body. Using this measure, student-athletes graduate at the same rate as the student body: 69%. Both college athletes and their peers in the student body increased by one point in the past year.
Division I members have adopted academic rule and policy changes intended to improve the academic performance of student-athletes. The success of those rule changes is clear: Over the past 19 years, 33,505 more college athletes graduated than would have had the GSR remained at 74%, the GSR the year it was introduced.
Just in 2020, the increase accounts for 3,872 more student-athlete graduates.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
Covidence is a systematic & scoping review tool used to streamline the process of screening and reviewing articles. Using this software, research teams can easily import studies, perform automatic deduplication, and extract data using templates. This workshop will show attendees how to start a review in Covidence, add collaborators, and get started on screening.
Virtual (Zoom)In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to Pandas, a Python tool for working with data easily. It makes it simple to organize and analyze information when data is organized and categorized, like spreadsheets or tables.
Group Spot B, John Peace LibraryEach fall and spring semester, students convene at the Main Campus at UTSA with booths, ideas and prototypes. A crowd of judges, local organizations, students, faculty and sponsors walk around and talk to the students about their projects and ask questions. Students get the real-life experience of "pitching" their project with hopes of getting funding or support to move to the next level.
UTSA Convocation Center, Main CampusJoin the doctoral candidates for the Doctoral Conferreal Ceremony and celebrate their accomplishments.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusCelebrate the graduates from the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, College of Education and Human Development, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design and University College.
AlamodomeCelebrate the graduates from the College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and College of Sciences.
AlamodomeThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.