What is the Graduation Rate of Purdue Global?

There are many excellent online colleges and universities in the United States, and it can be hard to choose the right one. One statistic to look at is a school's graduation rate.

Purdue Global is an online college that mainly serves adult and nontraditional students. Keep reading to discover Purdue Global's graduation rate.

What is Purdue Global?

Purdue Global is an online campus of Purdue, a public university system in Indiana. It offers degrees primarily to busy and working adults.

The Purdue system was established in 1869 with the founding of the first Purdue campus in West Lafayette, which remains the main campus of the system.

Over the years, the system opened Purdue Northwest, with campuses in Hammond and Westville, Indiana, and Purdue Fort Wayne, as well as a polytechnic university with multiple campuses.

In 2017, Purdue purchased the for-profit Kaplan University for one dollar. It restructured and rebranded as the non-profit Purdue Global in 2018.

Purdue Global offers exclusively online degrees, such as online bachelor's degrees, and the majority of its 33,500 students are nontraditional students:

• 59% of students are over age 30
• 52% have a child or other dependent
• 28% are military-affiliated
• 85% are working while enrolled

In the 2022-2023 school year, Purdue Global conferred 10,700 degrees, with nearly half of those being bachelor's degrees.

How is the Graduation Rate Calculated?

Graduation rate is one metric used to help students determine if a school is right for them.

However, before diving into the graduation rate of Purdue Global, we need to understand how the graduation rate is calculated.

Graduation rate is a statistic tracked by the T Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, a survey system run by the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

This statistic is calculated by taking the number of first-time, full-time students in one year and seeing how many of them eventually graduate within 150% of 'normal time.'

The normal time for an associate degree is two years and for a bachelor's degree is four years, so IPEDS tracks how many students graduate within three and six years, respectively.

The average six-year graduation rate in 2020 was 64%, but this number can vary based on the type of school a student is attending.

There are some obvious issues with tracking the graduation rate in this way, especially for schools that cater to nontraditional students.

Often, these students have already had some college experience and/or are studying part-time, and as a result, are not counted in this statistic.

What is the Graduation Rate at Purdue Global?

According to College Navigator, a tool created by the NCES to help students research colleges, the overall graduation rate at Purdue Global in the 2022-2023 year is 20%.

However, the NCES has put an asterisk on this data, saying: 'Interpret data with caution. Students who enroll in the university are not typically first-time students, as most are adult learners.

Therefore, the number of first-time students is traditionally low.'

While no data indicates what percentage of students have prior college credit, we do know that most students are over the age of 30, meaning they likely have at least some college experience.

Additionally, the majority of undergraduate students at Purdue Global study part-time: 84%, according to College Navigator.

It's also important to note that this data does not track graduate degrees, of which the university conferred nearly 3,500 in the 2022-2023 school year.

Nor does it track certificate programs, of which Purdue Global conferred over 4,500 in the 2022-2023 school year.

All that is to say that while the graduation rate at Purdue Global appears low, the number of students factored into that rate is only a fraction of the student population enrolled.

What Programs Does Purdue Global Offer?

Purdue Global offers over 175 associate degrees, bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, doctorate degrees, and certificate programs.

The university conferred 1,895 associate degrees in the 2022-2023 year. The most popular fields of study for graduates were:

• Business Administration (539 degrees)
• Health Sciences (309 degrees)
• Criminal Justice (307 degrees)

Purdue Global conferred 4,750 bachelor's degrees during this year. The most popular degrees were in:

• Health Sciences and Nursing (1,706 degrees)
• Business (1,129 degrees)
• Criminal Justice (392 degrees).

3,377 master's degrees were awarded in the 2022-2023 school year. The most popular fields of study were:

• Health Sciences and Nursing (1,043 degrees)
• Business (832 degrees)
• Behavioral Science (594 degrees)

Only a few doctoral degrees are available through Purdue Global. In the 2022-2023 year, 51 students earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, and 50 earned a Juris Doctor (law) degree.

Purdue Global awarded 4,498 undergraduate certificates during that school year. Most of these certificates were in:

• Health Sciences (1,150 certificates)
• Business (1,906 certificates)
• Computer Science and Information Technology (1,043 certificates)

The university awarded 486 graduate degrees in the 2022-2023 year. These certificates were primarily in:

• Health Sciences and Nursing (151 certificates)
• Computer Science and Information Technology (110 certificates)
• Psychology (98 certificates)

Overall, Purdue Global conferred a total of 15,107 degrees and certificates during the 2022-2023 school year.

Graduate from Purdue Global

The overall graduation rate at Purdue Global is 20%, but that number is slightly misleading as it does not take into account the high number of students with previous credits or who are studying part-time.

With the guide above, you can start to determine if graduating from Purdue Global is the right choice for you.