Record Academic Achievement
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In yet another record setting academic achievement, University of Arkansas student-athletes have set a new standard for graduation success rate (GSR) according to a report released on Tuesday by the NCAA.
Razorback student-athletes that entered school in a four-year period from 2006-09 earned a school record GSR of 78 percent. The latest GSR marked the eighth-consecutive rate of more than 70 percent by Razorback student-athletes and eclipsed the previous record mark of 76 percent recorded in both 2014 and 2015.
The GSR was developed as an improved measurement tool for tracking student-athletes’ academic progress leading toward graduation. The GSR is a four-year snapshot of a program’s academic progress. The University of Arkansas has steadily improved its GSR rate since the measurement was implemented 12 years ago rising from an initial rate of 60 percent to 78 percent in the numbers released on Tuesday.
“Nothing we do within intercollegiate athletics is more important than helping our student-athletes progress toward graduation,” Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long said. “The remarkable progress of our student-athletes is not only evident in our record breaking GSR, but most importantly in the more than 100 young men and women who are graduating from the University of Arkansas each year. I sincerely appreciate the hard work of our coaches and our student-athlete support staff in equipping student-athletes to succeed in their academic pursuits. Ultimately, though, it is the student-athletes themselves who make the choice to do what it takes to earn their degree. Each year more student-athletes are making that commitment and as a program we will continue to be here to assist them in reaching that life-changing goal.”
The GSR was established to more accurately gauge academic progress among student-athletes. Traditional federal graduation rates, which do not account for transfers or other student-athletes that leave institutions in good academic standing, were also released. That rate, based on student-athletes who enrolled full-time in fall 2009, is 56 percent.
In addition to the GSR, the NCAA established the Academic Progress Rate (APR) that provides institutions with a more real-time indicator of academic success. Last spring, Arkansas exceeded the APR benchmark in all 19 sports for the fourth consecutive year, including each sport exceeding the benchmark by at least 14 points.
In 2015-16, Razorback student-athletes posted a 3.23 cumulative GPA. It was the 13th consecutive semester that Razorback student-athletes recorded a GPA exceeding 3.0. Arkansas ranked second in the SEC in members on the fall academic honor roll, including a league leading 40 football student-athletes on the list. In all, nearly 300 student-athletes made an honor roll this past year and 100 names were added to Senior Walk as graduates of the University of Arkansas.
