For many University of Memphis students, graduating in four years is an unattainable goal.
Many U of M students are finding that graduating from a four- year university is taking longer than four years.
On average, only about 10 percent of full-time first-time students graduate from The U of M in four years, according to the Office of Institutional Research .
More students are now graduating in five years rather than four.
According to OIR, of the 1995 entering freshman class at The U of M, 8.7 percent of students graduated in four years. The percentage of graduates increases, however, after four years.
Of the same class, 24.7 percent of students graduated in five years or less, and 33.5 percent of students in that class graduated after six years.
This statistic is considerably lower than the Tennessee state average of 42 percent of students who graduate within six years of enrolling in a four-year institution, according to the Tennessee Board of Regents.
According to graduation analysts at The U of M, there are many reasons that students are taking longer to graduate now.
Sandra Akah, the graduation analyst for the college of business, said it seems like most business students generally take about 4.5 years to graduate.
“There are commitments other than school that students have to deal with,” Akah said. “Many students are trying to balance work and school, so it takes a little bit longer to graduate.”
Mary Lanier, graduation analyst for the college of education, added that course availability and a busy work schedule prevent students from graduating on time.
“When students have to work full-time during the day, they can’t take the classes that are only offered during the day or do the field work in the education department needed to graduate,” Lanier said. “It seems like most education students graduate in about five or six years.”
Junior Charles Daniels, a computer engineering major, agreed that the way the classes are scheduled at The U of M can prevent a person from graduating on time.
“Some classes are only offered in certain semesters or at certain times,” said Daniels, who is expecting to graduate after five years. “So if you can’t squeeze the class in, you end up having to stick around until the next time that it’s offered.”
Akah added that even students who don’t have other commitments don’t do what they need to in order to graduate on time.
“To me students just play around their first year or two,” she said. “So when it comes time to graduate, they’re not ready. They end up having to get serious in their later college years.”
According to one student, the difficulty of choosing a major prevents students from graduating on time.
“I’ve been at The U of M for four years, but this is my fifth school,” said Senior Ashly Bew, a music business major. “I just couldn’t decide on a major because I had to find something that I was excited about and I didn’t find that until I came here.”
Bew will be graduating this spring along with 1,650 other U of M students.
