Ashford University Program Disclosures
Federal regulations published in October, 2010 require institutions to report certain information about students who enrolled in Title IV eligible educational programs that lead to gainful employment in a recognized occupation (GE programs). These required disclosures include a program’s 1) program costs; 2) on-time completion rates; 3) median loan debt; 4) links to O*NET SOC descriptions; and 5) placement rates. Please find all of the required information contained below.
On-Time Completion Rate:
The academic calendar for programs offered in the online modality at Ashford University is continuous, rather than defined by semester dates. Normally, students take one course at a time and move to the next course in the program sequence without a break. All courses begin on a Tuesday and end on a Monday five weeks later (undergraduate), or six weeks later (graduate). Opportunities to enroll in undergraduate or graduate programs are available up to 50 Tuesdays throughout the calendar year. There is generally one annual two-week Winter Break when courses are not scheduled. For example, the annual break for 2010-2011 occurred from December 21, 2010 to January 3, 2011.
Thus, the normal time for a full-time undergraduate student to complete a program may be calculated by multiplying the total number of courses in the program by five (5) weeks and adding two (2) weeks for each fifty (50) week period required to complete the program. For example, the normal time for completion of a program that consists of forty (40) classes would be calculated as follows:
40 classes x 5 weeks each = 200 weeks + 8 scheduled break weeks = 208 weeks to complete the program within the normal timeframe.
Prior to July 1, 2011, online students could take a break of up to twenty-nine (29) days between classes without being withdrawn from the program. Beginning July 1, 2011, students may take a break of up to forty-five (45) days between classes without being withdrawn from the program, as long as they provide written confirmation of their intent to return. Any break of this type may affect a student’s ability to complete the program “on-time” as per the methodology above for calculating the on-time program completion rate.
For the on-campus traditional modality, the academic calendar consists of two 16 week semesters per year. As such, the normal timeframe for completion of a bachelor’s program in this modality is four (4) years or 208 weeks. Select programs may have a normal timeframe of eight or nine semesters, such as those in the College of Education or the BA in Professional Accounting.
The on-time program completion rate represents the percentage of students who completed their program in the referenced financial aid award year (July 1 to June 30) within the normal timeframe for that program out of the total students who completed the program in that year. For example, if 100 students completed a program between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010, and 60 of those students finished the program within the normal time for completion, the on-time completion rate would be 60%. If there were no completers in the timeframe referenced, then "N/A" will appear.