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South Carolina becomes the 39th state to join the Complete College America Alliance to boost on-time college completion
October 27, 2021
INDIANAPOLIS – Governor Henry McMaster is proud to announce South Carolina becoming the 48th member and 39th state to join Complete College America, a national organization dedicated to increasing college completion rates and ensuring everyone has a path to postsecondary success. Joining Complete College America (CCA) reaffirms South Carolina’s commitment to higher education and to its roughly 195,000 students enrolled in the 32 public two-year and four-year institutions statewide.
“We must do all that we can to ensure South Carolinians have opportunities to further their education and find a good-paying job to support themselves and their families,” said Gov. McMaster. “We’ve worked hard to dramatically increase needs-based financial aid available to low-income students in our state, but there’s more work to be done. Complete College America will help South Carolinians identify these opportunities and set them on a path towards prosperity, which will lift all of South Carolina.”
South Carolina data indicates too few students are graduating on-time, leading to additional semesters, increased tuition costs, and delayed entry into the job market. For parents and students, the national average cost in tuition and lost wages for an extra year of college is $50,933 at a public two-year institution and $68,153 at a public four-year institution. Through this partnership, CCA will assist the state in crafting and aligning policies with data-proven practices to boost on-time college completion.
“Increasing higher education attainment for learners of all backgrounds, but especially for low-income students, first generation college-going students, adult learners, and minoritized students, is a national concern,” said Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, president of CCA. “Increased college completion within a state like South Carolina stimulates their labor economy and makes the state attractive for investment. Complete College America looks forward to partnering with higher education leaders across the state of South Carolina to develop college completion and student success action plans to meet the education and economic goals of the state.”
Joining the Complete College America Alliance is a well-timed opportunity for South Carolina as the state is focusing on increasing college degrees and credentials of value for all of its residents. The state’s educational priorities are perfectly aligned with CCA’s strategies, and this partnership will significantly contribute to achieving the state’s goals of 60 percent of South Carolinians with a postsecondary credential of economic and educational value by 2030. “There are so many states in the CCA Alliance that have become exemplars in the college completion movement,” said Rusty Monhollon, president and executive director of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. “We look forward to building on our success and strategic plan to learn from those members and advance our state’s agenda of college attainment and increased workforce outcomes.”
As an Alliance member, South Carolina is now able to participate in multiple CCA-led and funded national projects, engage with the national peer learning networks that have designed and implemented student success policies and practices across the country, share new learnings and opportunities for innovation with the Alliance, and receive guidance and support in crafting policies aligned with the state’s priorities.
Starting this fall, Complete College America will engage with institutions and partner with system leaders from the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education and the South Carolina Technical College System to prioritize and implement student success strategies.
Established in 2009, Complete College America is a bold national advocate for dramatically increasing college completion rates and closing equity gaps by working with states, systems, institutions, and partners to scale highly effective structural reforms and promote policies that improve student success. CCA envisions a nation where all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or familial educational achievement have equal opportunities to access and complete a college education or credential of value because postsecondary institutions, policy makers, and systems of higher education welcome, invest in, and support these students through and to an on-time completion. Learn more at www.completecollege.org/.
