The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE - Thousands of students at Kentucky's eight public universities will receive their diplomas this month, but education officials say there is room for improvement in the schools' graduation rates.

There have been modest improvements in the past 10 years. The University of Kentucky, with a 57.8 percent graduation rate, and Murray State University at 55.4 percent were both above the national average in 2002, the latest year for which national figures are available.

But the average graduation rate last year was 45.3 percent, up from 38.6 percent in 1993. The national average for 2003 won't be released until this fall, but it was 55 percent in 2001 and 2002.

Last year UK hit 61.1 percent and Murray State had 56.3 percent, according to figures released Wednesday by the Council on Postsecondary Education.

At the bottom of the scale last year, Northern Kentucky University, at 33.3 percent, and the University of Louisville, at 34.9 percent, graduated only about a third of their first-year students within six years; six years is the national standard for measuring graduation rates.

"We've made progress," Jim Applegate, vice president for academic affairs for the Council on Postsecondary Education, said Wednesday. "... But we'll have a lot of work to do to reach the national average."

The postsecondary council tracks graduation rates and sets goals for each public university, but doesn't impose sanctions on schools that don't improve their rates. Still, Gov. Ernie Fletcher told university presidents earlier this year that he would like the rates increased.

Some school officials said recent state budget cuts to higher education could have an impact on course offerings, class sizes and services provided to students. Fletcher ordered $66 million in cuts this year.

Morehead State University, which had a 44.2 percent graduation rate last year, has cut two of its 11 general academic advisers, who help students navigate the course requirements needed to graduate, as a result of the budget cuts, said Mike Moore, the provost.

"I'd like to get back those two positions, and if not, there's great potential there that our (student) retention will be less than what we're hoping for," Moore said.

Joni Finney, whose San Jose, Calif.-based National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education uses graduation rates in its biennial national report card on postsecondary education, said graduation rates are a good indicator of how well a college helps students through the system.

"Kentucky needs to do some work in that area, making sure that students get their degrees and stay in school," Finney said.

Some schools are taking steps to find out why students don't finish.

Kentucky State University, which had a 39 percent graduation rate in 2003, began this semester tracking down and interviewing as many dropouts as it could find to determine why they left. It will use that information to provide services to keep students in school, said Juanita Fleming, interim vice president for academic affairs.

"In another year we'll have better information on why students leave because we didn't have a handle on that at all," Fleming said.

Some officials acknowledge their graduation rates aren't as high as they should be.

"We've kind of turned this one around, and we're heading in the right direction, but it would be hard for me to argue these are acceptable graduation rates - because from my perspective they are not," U of L Provost Shirley Willihnganz said.

Willihnganz said U of L's six-year graduation rate is lower than other state schools' in part because fewer students live on campus, many work while taking classes and many start out as full-time students but then drop to part-time.

"The fact is many of them do finish," she said. "It just takes longer."

But in the 1999-2000 academic year the school began to take steps to improve its graduation rate, she said, including admitting more students who are better prepared for college, improving academic counseling and building more dormitories so more than half of all freshmen now live on campus.