BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Athletics has continued its standards for academic excellence, reaching its highest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in program history in the latest report released by the NCAA on Thursday.
"I congratulate our student-athletes for their academic discipline and dedication which has resulted in the highest Graduation Success Rate in WKU Athletics history," said Director of Athletics Todd Stewart. "Much is made of the many championships our programs win on the field of play, and the legitimacy of those successes are further validated because they are being achieved by true student-athletes who excel in the classroom and ultimately earn a meaningful degree."
WKU posted an overall GSR of 87, topping the previous high of 85 reached twice in the department's history. In three of the last four GSR reports, WKU has achieved or tied the program's highest mark.
WKU also posted a 66 percent Federal Graduation Rate which is 11 percent higher than the university's general student body (55 percent) and the second highest rate in WKU Athletics history.
Six programs achieved perfect GSR scores of 100, while four programs improved or maintained their scores from a year ago.
Volleyball extended its streak of perfect GSR scores to 16 years and has posted a perfect score every year the program has been eligible to report. Women's tennis posted a perfect GSR score for the seventh straight season and for the ninth time in program history.
Women's soccer and women's basketball also posted perfect scores in four straight years, and it marked soccer's 10th perfect score since 2001. The 100 mark was women's basketball's sixth all-time perfect score.
Women's golf achieved a perfect score for the third straight year and has been perfect four times in program history.
The biggest mover within WKU Athletics was men's golf, which jumped 27 points from 73 to 100. Men's cross country and track and field also made a significant jump, moving up 11 points from 83 to 94. Football had a 10-point improvement going from 64 to 74. Women's cross country and track and field moved up from 83 to 88.
The GSRs released Thursday are based on the four freshmen classes in Division I entering from 2011 to 2014. The NCAA calculates the rates based upon the number of student-athletes who graduated within six years after initially enrolling, in addition to those who left an institution prior to graduating but would have been academically eligible to compete.
ABOUT THE NCAA GRADUATION SUCCESS RATE
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, no matter whether he or she 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: 68%. Student-athletes' federal graduation rate stayed the same between last year and this year, while the student body rate increased 2 percentage points.
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