Skip Top Navigation

Student Achievement Measures

The University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) identifies, evaluates, and publishes goals and outcomes for student achievement appropriate to the institution's mission, the nature of the students it serves, and the kinds of programs offered. The institution uses multiple measures to document student success. As a public institution, the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) evaluates its success of student achievement on an ongoing basis, based on its strategic plan and mission. These four goals are aligned with Educational Attainment, one of the four themes of the strategic plan, and they are aligned with UHCL's mission to place "its highest priority on serving a diverse body of students in every aspect of their university experience."

Goal 1:  Graduation Rates

Outcome #1

Source:  THECB LBB, Outcome 1, 6
Outcome #1 Criteria Target Results
Increase graduation rates. Track six-year and four-year graduation rates for first-time in college, full-time, degree seeking students. 60% of FTIC students will graduate in six years; 60% of FTIC students will graduate in four years. The 6-year and 4-year periods ending in 2022 had graduation rates of 53.74% & 33.74%. These are better than the periods ending in 2020, but still below the 60% threshold. The effects of COVID-19 prevented many in these small cohorts from completing their programs on time.

Six-Year Grad Rates

UDGD, First Time in College, Full-Time, Degree-Seeking

Students Cohort Fall 2012 (2018) Cohort Fall 2013 (2019) Cohort Fall 2014 (2020) Cohort Fall 2015 (2021) Cohort Fall 2016 (2022)
White n/a n/a 55.21 55.45 53.16
Black or African American  n/a n/a 25.00 66.67 50.00
Hispanic n/a n/a 50.72 44.87 55.10
Asian American n/a n/a 57.14 54.17 56.00
Other n/a n/a 54.55 69.23 44.44
Female n/a n/a 56.62 58.68 61.29
Male n/a n/a 42.42 46.73 44.66
Total n/a n/a 51.98 53.07 53.74

Four-Year Grad Rate

UDGD, First Time in College, Full-Time, Degree-Seeking

Students Cohort Fall 2014 (2018) Cohort Fall 2015 (2019) Cohort Fall 2016 (2020) Cohort Fall 2017 (2021) Cohort Fall 2018 (2022)
White 35.42 35.64 30.38 27.47 30.11
Black or African American 8.33 25.00 31.25 18.18 40.00
Hispanic 24.64 23.08 32.65 20.00 34.41
Asian American 42.86 25.00 8.00 44.44 32.35
Other 36.36 30.77 22.22 26.67 50.00
Female 36.03 33.06 33.06 28.67 37.40
Male 19.70 25.23 23.30 21.98 29.57
Total 30.69 29.39 28.63 34.57 33.74

Outcome #2

Source: THECB LBB, Outcome 33, 38
Outcome #2 Criteria Target Results
Increase graduation rates. Track six-year and four-year transfer graduation rates. 60% of transfer students will graduate in six years; 60% of transfer students will graduate in four years. The six-year graduation rate for transfer students was 70.94%, an increase over the previous year. The four-year graduation rate was 64.72%, a decrease from the prior year.

Six-Year Grad Rate

UDGD, First Time Transfer, Full-Time, Degree-Seeking

 
Students Cohort Fall 2012 (2018) Cohort Fall 2013 (2019) Cohort Fall 2014 (2020) Cohort Fall 2015 (2021) Cohort Fall 2016 (2022)
White 77.89 80.00 72.38 70.82 72.51
Black or African American 50.00 63.04   65.63 56.67 72.22
Hispanic 77.14 73.03  76.47  72.82 67.00
Asian American 73.68 85.42  80.00  86.96 82.14
Other 72.73 75.00  68.85 45.65 69.77
Female 76.99 79.26  77.48  71.61 73.96
Male 71.43 72.22  65.32 65.98 66.67
Total 74.96 76.73 73.18 69.48 70.94

Four-Year Grad Rate

UDGD, First Time Transfer, Full-Time, Degree-Seeking

 
Students Cohort Fall 2014 (2018) Cohort Fall 2015 (2019) Cohort Fall 2016 (2020) Cohort Fall 2017 (2021) Cohort Fall 2018 (2022)
White 66.67 64.41 68.73 62.88 66.25
Black or African American 54.69 55.00 66.67 63.33 69.64
Hispanic 66.97 68.45 64.00 70.97 64.81
Asian American 77.50 80.43 78.57 70.00 66.67
Other 63.93 43.48 67.44 66.67 43.90
Female 70.86 67.09 70.91 69.39 70.97
Male 57.26 60.17 62.35 61.43 55.78
Total 66.05 64.48 67.37 66.67 64.72

Goal 2: Retention Rates

Outcome #1

Source:  THECB LBB, Outcome 43
Outcome #1 Criteria Target Results
Promote student retention. Track on-year retention rates for FTIC students and for transfer students. 75% of FTIC students will be retained after one year (the goal for retention is set at the mean for the last 6 years plus the standard deviation). In 2022, transfer students (78.5%) exceeded the target retention measure, while FTIC students (66.54%) fell short.

One-Year Retention Rate

Outcome #2

Source:  IPEDS Retention Report
Outcome #2 Criteria Target Results
Promote student retention. Compare retention rate with national peers, per IPEDS. UHCL will be in the top five of the 10-member UHCL National Peer Group. UHCL's 74% retention rate placed it third in the group of 10 national peer institutions. Seven universities reported lower rates (48% to 68%) and two universities reported higher rates (84% for both).
Source:  IPEDS Retention Report
IPEDS Unit ID
UHCL National Peer Group Institution Name
Full-time
Retention
Rate, 2019
Full-time
Retention
Rate, 2021
165820 Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg MA 74 68
145336 Governors State University, University Park IL 52 48
151342 Indiana University-South Bend, South Bend IN 68 54
224147 Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi TX 60 55
161873 University of Baltimore, Baltimore MD 87 68
126580 University of Colorado, Colorado Springs CO 70 67
225414 University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston TX 80 74
148654 University of Illinois at Springfield, Springfield IL 79 67
171137 University of Michigan- Dearborn, Dearborn MI 81 84
138354 University of West Florida, Pensacola FL 81 84

Goal 3: Course Completion Rates

Source:  THECB LBB, Outcome 16
Outcome #1 Criteria Target Results
Improve course completion rates. Track the percentage of semester credit hours completed over the number attempted. UHCL seeks to improve its course completion rates by surpassing the average plus the standard deviation, which would be 94.8% completion. The drop in the percentage of courses completed between the 2020-2021 school years is likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, causing many students to drop courses. Since then the percentage of courses completed has increased to nearly pre-pandemic levels.


Goal 4:  Licensing Examinations

Source: TSBPA website
Outcome #1 Criteria Target Results
Ensure UHCL students will be prepared for professional practice. Track passing rates of the Universal CPA Exam over three years. UHCL will be in the top half of comparison of THECB Master's University Peer Group. 158 UHCL students tested on 166 sections of the Uniform CPA examination in 2022, and passed 40% of those sections. This places UHCL 6th when compared to 11 members of the THECB's Master's University Peer Group.
THECB Master's University Peer Group
#  of 
Candidates
Tested
# of
Sections
Tested
# of
Sections
Passed
% of
Sections
Passed
Angelo State University 65 67 30 44.78%
Midwestern State University 36 36 15 41.67%
Texas A&M University - Central Texas 8 8 7 87.50%
Texas A&M University - Texarkana         9 9 3 33.33%
University of Houston - Clear Lake 158 166 67 40.36%
University of Houston - Downtown 192 201 47 23.38%
University of Houston - Victoria 54 56 22 39.29%
University of North Texas at Dallas 41 43 12 27.91%
University of Texas - Brownsville 9 10 2 20.00%
University of Texas - Permian Basin 86 90 44 48.89%
University of Texas - Tyler   75 77 44 57.14%
Source: TSBPA website
Outcome #2 Criteria Target Results
Ensure UHCL students will be prepared for professional practice. Track passing rates of the Universal CPA Exam over three years. Maintain a ratio of at least 6.0 for Number of CPA Exam Candidates from July of Year X+1 through June of Year X+2/Number of Accounting MS Graduates from September of Year X. In 2022, UHCL reported that 158 students sat for the CPA exam, a three-year decrease of 20%.
UHCL Student Testing Statistics
# of
Candidates
Tested
# of
Sections
Tested
# of
Sections
Passed
% of
Sections
Passed
2022 158 166 67 40.36%
2021 150 157 51 32.48%
2020 144 151 65 43.05%
2019 197 225 91 40.44%
2018 221 272 110 40.44%
2017 261 330 121 36.67%

 

Contact

  • Institutional Research

    Phone: 281-283-3005
    Fax: 281-283-3030
    Email: ir@uhcl.edu

    Bayou Building 2120
    2700 Bay Area Blvd, Box 80
    Houston, TX 77058-1002