Roundtable: Goal Is 60% College Grads By 2025

(Indianapolis, Ind.) - Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels may not have much more time in office, but he continues to lay out plans for the state’s future.

The Reaching Higher, Achieving More plan identifies three challenges for the state.

College completion: Increase on-time college graduation rates for Hoosier students to at least 50 percent at four-year campuses and 25 percent at two-year campuses by 2018.

Degree production: Double the number of college degrees and certificates produced currently by 2025 (requires increasing annual degree production from approximately 60,000 degrees to 120,000 degrees).

Education attainment: Increase higher education attainment of Hoosier adults to 60 percent of Indiana’s population by 2025 (45 percent by 2018).

Currently, only about 30 percent of Indiana adults have completed an education beyond high school.

Indiana’s bi-partisan Education Roundtable – a group of state education and business leaders co-chaired by the governor – believes education will be the key to keeping the state competitive in a global economy. 

"Indiana’s future rests on our ability to increase college completion rates and reduce the time it takes for Hoosier students to earn a degree,” said Teresa Lubbers, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education. “Reaching these aspirations is a shared responsibility that will require unprecedented collaboration and commitment from Indiana educators, business and community leaders, and students and families.”