More students graduating in four years from Michigan public universities | Bridge Michigan

At the same time, leaders are discussing what it will take to grow Michigan’s population and retain the people who already live in the state. 

Michigan is recruiting out-of-state college students but remains a “net-exporter of college-educated talent, especially Black college graduates,” according to a population growth council appointed by Whitmer. 

About 19% of Black adults in Michigan hold a bachelor’s degree, a figure that stands at 25% nationally, the council said last year in a report.

“The whole idea of trying to get more people educated is that we think it’s going to improve jobs and improve people’s earnings,” Hershbein said. 

Generally, college graduates will have greater job stability, be healthier and happier, and ultimately contribute more tax revenue to the state, Hershbein said. “But it can’t just be ‘if you build it, it will come,’ you need to trust but verify.”

‘Intentional’ student advising 

Wayne State University, Oakland University and University of Michigan-Dearborn are among the schools with the highest growth in four-year success rates, according to the new state data. 

At Wayne State, the rate of students finishing a degree or certificate within four years climbed from 23.4% to 50.1% in the last decade, and enrollment has grown too. 

Graduation rates had been so low that the university had to look at “literally everything” it did and “reorient it toward supporting our students,” President Kimberly Andrews Espy told Bridge Michigan and BridgeDetroit in a joint interview.

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