Between 2015-16, Grambling State University awarded 729 associate’s, bachelor’s, masters and doctoral degrees across its full range of programs. According to a new strategic framework released by the University of Louisiana System, GSU will have to nearly triple that annual output over the next eight years to keep pace with an ambitious new goal.
According to the framework, developed by the presidents of the UL System’s nine member institutions, each school will have to produce towards an annual system-wide average of 18,700 graduates to keep up with a projected influx of high school graduates in Louisiana, many of whom will come from low-income households and will add to the state’s more than 1.5 million working adults who only have a high school diploma.
To bolster the system’s $4 billion annual economic impact, UL officials institutions must look for ways to secure resources to exceed its total average of 16,000 students earning degrees every year. That puts GSU on the hook to yield an annual cohort of at least 2,083 graduates to help the system meet its goals.
Grambling officials in September announced the school’s highest enrollment in four years, and recently announced record-breaking federal funding for research grants and contracts; but between 2000 and 2015, GSU was second-to-worst in the system in the total number of degrees awarded with 12,928.
