Faculty Senate

Document Type

Meeting Document

Publication Date

6-5-2019

Abstract

A proposal for the honors program pilot to be officially recognized as an official university program and to have this designation stated on students’ official transcripts and on their diplomas upon graduation.

History of the Pilot Program

Each year KU receives applications from 60-70 students with a high school GPA of 3.9 or higher and/or an overall ACT of 32 or higher (whom we call “high fliers”); historically, we would matriculate about 7% of these students. In order to discover how to increase the yield rate, marketing and enrollment did a year-long study to ask these students “What can KU do to attract you?” These students indicated that they wanted the following:

  • Opportunities for research with faculty members
  • More attention and guidance from co-op
  • Dedicated advising
  • Additional scholarships
  • Honors designation
  • More flexibility in curriculum

With this program, the university has sought to

  • Increase gender parity
  • Assist in the growth of majors besides ME
  • Increase the retention rate

Thus, in the academic year 2016-17, the provost started a pilot program to determine if providing these things to the students would increase the yield of “high fliers.” The pilot was a success, and the program is currently growing, with 12 students the first academic year (2016-17), 10 the second year (2017-18), and 24 this year (2018-19). Without this program, we would not be able to attract these students to KU.

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