Education Policy, Business and Technology

Graduation rates, student loans and big data

CIO: I always feel a strong connection to the cover stories of CIO's monthly digital magazines, but September's topic really hit home. Improving graduation rates is an issue all colleges and universities grapple with. From a business perspective, mediocre graduation rates cost schools money, but as CIO.com senior writer Clint Boulton reports in our September 2016 cover story, "Big Data on Campus," analytics are helping universities and colleges identify and, when necessary, offer support to students who are at risk of falling behind -- or even worse, leaving school without a degree.

As a parent with one daughter who recently graduated and another in her junior year, college is on my mind, as are the student loans and the job prospects that follow. Getting accepted to and thriving in the right college is a challenge every student and parent must contend with. The cost of a four-year degree continues to rise, and the stakes are high for students to "make it." The only thing worse than six-figure college loan debt is that debt with no degree.

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