INDIANAPOLIS, IND. – While the Trojans continue to post historic marks on the court and field, their commitment to the student portion of the student-athlete continues to break records as well as the Black and Gold posted the highest Academic Success Rate (ASR) in the South Atlantic Conference while increasing their Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) for the 11th straight year.
"Anderson University is known to provide its students with rigorous coursework from some of the most distinguished and respected faculty in the country," said Vice President for Athletics Dr. Bert Epting. "With great support from the University, the Athletics Department has made a conscious effort to better our student-athletes both in and out of competition. To finish this cohort at the top of one of the most prestigious conferences in the nation speaks volumes to the dedication of our student-athletes not only to their craft, but to their future after sports as well."
The Trojans topped the conference by four full percentage points, the same increase they had from last year, with an 85%-mark, eight percentage points better than the national average. The ASR is a metric established by the NCAA in 2006 to better track the six-year success rates of student-athletes on campuses. While the FGR only tracks those student-athletes that started at a single institution and only counts those who are receiving academic aid, the ASR includes transfer and mid-year enrollees as well as those student-athletes who are not receiving athletic aid.
The Trojans men's teams posted a 79% ASR, a full ten percentage points better than the national average, while the women's teams turned in a 92% ASR, four points better than the national average. This marks the second straight year for the Trojans at over 80%, with last year's cohort posting an 81% ASR. The Trojans have seen increases in ASR in all but two years of the NCAA's tracking of the metric.
Anderon's FGR has also seen a steady increase since the institution's lowest mark in 2006 and has seen an increase of 16% points over the past eleven years.
From an individual sport perspective, the Anderson men's and women's golf teams topped the league in ASR and FGR with marks of 100%/92% on the men's side and perfect 100% scores on the women's team. The men's team also sits tied for first in the nation in ASR while the women's squad boasts the number one spot in both categories.
The most recent cohort also shows the department's commitment to academic excellence as the student-athletes of Anderson posted a better graduation rate than the general student body. The Trojans turned in an overall graduation rate of 77% compared to 68% for the general student body. This was the first time in ten years that the student-athletes mark was better than the general population.
As mentioned above, FGR is calculated by taking the total number of graduates from the first-time full-time enrollees in the reported academic year that received athletic aid and dividing that by the total number of those enrollees. ASR is calculated using all enrollees including transfers, mid-year enrollees and non-scholarship student-athletes. This latest report was for the cohort of student athletes that were first enrolled full-time in the 2017-18 academic year and uses statistics over a six-year period.
