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The University of Florida series, Measuring University Performance, will continue with the issue of January 1, 1996, focus on student academic profiles. Other issues will take up additional topics reflecting the university's commitment to measuring university performance in quality and productivity of research, teaching, extension, and service.

All of us at the University of Florida welcome comments and suggestions prompted by this series. Please write to the Office of Institutional Planning and Research, PO Box 113115, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-3115 (ufdata@aa.ufl.edu).

Summary

Over the past several years the legislature, Board of Regents and universities have worked on a variety of programs to improve the efficiency and accountability of university education. These efforts have as their goal the improvement of a student-centered undergraduate program in our universities. The critical analysis in this effort gave us an understanding of the total number of credit hours required for a degree compared to the total number of credit hours taken for a degree. This credit hours-to-degree, shows that the average UF student takes about 24 credit hours beyond those required for the final degree. The aim of our analysis is to facilitate students' progress toward degrees by removing barriers that are the responsibility of the university. Analysis of the data for the Spring 1995 graduating class revealed one source of excess hours was an inability to obtain basic courses in English at the time they were needed. Students who cannot obtain needed classes often register for unneeded classes in order to keep their financial aid. With help from the legislature this year we removed that barrier to the degree by offering 2739 more seats of English. The benefits of this were seen immediately in satisfied students who obtained a needed course, and benefits for the state will be seen when these students graduate with fewer excess hours.

The data and charts presented here indicate that about half of the 24 excess hours could be eliminated by better management of the student's progress through the university. Some of the remaining excess hours are a necessary cost of students' exploration of alternative degree paths, while other hours, due to students dropping, repeating or failing courses may be susceptible to management. The reduction of excess hours is a university-wide responsibility. Excess hours cannot be measured meaningfully by college because students transfer from college to college and the university does not want to discourage colleges from accepting students who have taken a while to discover their appropriate major and thus will graduate with excess hours.

The charts here include baccalaureate degree recipients in Spring 1995 (2556 students) who received one degree with one major and had no previous baccalaureate degrees. This is the pool of students in the Board of Regents accountability plan. These data have been audited and their accuracy verified. There is also one chart showing excess hours for the students who had two majors or received two degrees.

This chart illustrates the effect of changing majors on excess hours. About 80% of the students did not change majors or changed majors only once. Students who changed majors once actually took fewer excess hours (by two) than those who changed not at all. For last year's class (Spring 1994) this difference was in the opposite direction, with one change in major adding two credit hours. Both years the difference between changing majors once and not at all was only two credit hours. Clearly changing majors once is not an issue in excess credit hours. Students who changed majors more than once took 28 excess hours, 4 more than those who changed majors not at all.

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Excess Hours

Excess Hours as a Function of Number of Changes in Major

Total Excess Hours as a Function of Student Classification

Students who began at UF took on average 21 excess hours while community college transfer students averaged 29 excess hours. This difference was in the same direction for last year's graduating class, but the difference was smaller. The source of the excess hours differs for transfer students and students beginning at UF, as shown in the chart below, with most of the excess hours for transfer students being hours taken elsewhere that were not used for the UF degree. Clearly there is room for improved articulation. The largest source of excess hours for students beginning at UF is courses dropped (only courses dropped after the drop/add period are included in the analysis) or failed. Part of this overage may be susceptible to management by better advising and part may not. The excess hours that are labeled in the chart non-optimum path are hours a student took that fulfilled a requirement that could have been fulfilled by taking fewer hours. This source of excess hours should be reducible by better advising.

Excess Hours as a Function of Student Classification and Source of Hours

This chart shows the effects of double majoring or fulfilling the requirements for two baccalaureate degrees. In the graduating class of Spring 1995 only 25 students had a double major, and these students took on average 28 extra hours, only 4 more than students with one major. The 20 students who received dual degrees however, took on average 63 extra credit hours, almost 40 more than students who received only one degree. One reason for the large number of excess hours associated with dual degrees is the requirement that the last 30 credits toward the baccalaureate degree be completed in residence at the college from which the student will graduate. When degrees are received from two colleges residency must be fulfilled in both.

Excess Hours as a Function of Dual Degree or Dual Major

This chart shows the distribution of excess credit hours by the number of students at 12 hour intervals. The largest number of students took 12 or fewer excess hours, or 10% or less over the number required. One hundred and one students took no excess hours. The number of excess hours varies by discipline with students in professional programs taking more excess hours than those in the humanities and social sciences. Students take excess hours to enhance their skills, expand their horizons, or maintain full-time status while seeking entry into required courses. These all represent elements of excess hours that offer an opportunity for reduction.

Frequency Distribution Number of Excess Credits

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