A Rising Tide in Graduation Rates at the California State University (CSU), a Persistent Divide in Racial Equity

The CSU is the largest public university system in the nation, providing critical access to a four-year degree for over 400,000 undergraduate students across 23 campuses. 

In 2015, the CSU launched the Graduation Initiative 2025 (GI 2025) to increase graduation rates and close racial/ethnic equity gaps in degree completion. Today, the CSU boasts a historic growth in graduation rates for first-time students from 19% to 35% in four years and a more modest growth from 57% to 62% in six years.

This publication serves as a progress report on the efforts of the CSU system and each of its 23 campuses to raise graduation rates for first-time students and transfer students and close racial equity gaps over the last decade. The report finds:

• Historic growth in first-time student graduation rates from 19% to 35% in four years.
• Twelve CSU campuses have made progress in closing equity gaps in six-year graduation rates for first-time students and in closing equity gaps in four-year graduation rates for transfer students. 
• Despite increases in graduation rates, including for Black, AIAN, and Latinx students, equity gaps remain unacceptably high, at around 11 or 12 points overall. 
• Each of the 23 CSU campuses have differing goals to improve the four- and six-year graduation rates. Even if each campus met its exact individual goal, the system would not meet three of the four systemwide GI 2025 goals. 

This report has been updated as of September 26, 2023 due to errors in the appendix. Learn more below.