Inside Higher Ed:Pushing for 4-Year Graduation

The University of North Carolina at Asheville has come up with a remedy: free summer courses. The university is offering students who are one or two classes shy of junior or senior status (60 or 90 credits) free summer courses to encourage them to complete the 120 credits required to graduate in four years. The six-year graduation rate at Asheville is 60 percent, according to Deaver Traywick, interim senior director of student success. And the four-year rate, according to the U.S. Education Department, is just under 40 percent.