A preliminary study on student retention rates by the Illinois Board of Higher Education ranked NIU fourth out of 10 state universities and colleges.

The study, which was based on the number of freshmen entering universities in 1980 and how many of that number graduated five years later, “requires furthur analysis,” John Huther, IBHE deputy director of fiscal affairs, said.

Nick Noe, NIU director of institutional research, said the study indicated 47.2 percent, or 1,775 of 3,758, freshmen entering NIU in 1980 graduated after 5 years. Huther said of the percent who graduated, 46.1 percent were male and 48 percent were female. After a seven-year period, 1,907, or 57.7 percent, of the freshmen graduated, Noe said.

Noe said the data was collected within two different time periods because some students only attended NIU part-time or some left for a period of time and then returned. In addition, he said the study not only analyzed universities such as NIU but also dealt with urban institutions where some students attend for a number of years.

Huther said the study is not complete because data collected from the universities was not “uniform.” He said some of the universities did not have the data from 1980, so figures from other years were used instead.

“In a sense, this is an incomplete analysis because there are still definitional problems with the date (1980) … the schools are not exactly comparable, ” Huthur said.

NIU followed the rankings of Illinois State University with 50.23 percent, Eastern Illinois University with 51.2 percent and the University of Illinois with 68.37 percent of the freshmen graduating after a five-year period.

Huther said the study was conducted as part of background information for the Illinois General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Minority Access to Higher Education. “This is not a stand-alone study,” he said.

Huthur said the universities will need to provide additional data to the IBHE so the study can be completed. He also said the study was “very limited” because only one group of students, the freshman class of 1980, was analyzed.

Noe said NIU’s institutional research continually monitors NIU’s retention and graduation rates. He said the department is working on collecting information about retention rates for different groups of students such as transfers.

Some schools following NIU’s ranking were Western Illinois University with 36.66 percent and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale with 26.67 percent of the freshmen graduating after a five-year period.