Reducing the time it takes students to complete an undergraduate degree or credential is not a simple undertaking. Complicating factors include academic policies and standards, degree requirements, student preparedness, and financial aid regulations. However, a decrease in the time it takes for a student to complete a postsecondary credential or degree is of critical importance to those who would like to see improvements in the productivity of higher education, and the students and states who pay for it.
Often, research on time to completion has not included the many factors in postsecondary education with which the issue is aligned, such as those outlined above. This section looks at the ways in which institutional, system, and state legislative policies can reasonably expedite student progress to completion of a postsecondary degree or credential.
