Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 1057]

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IQ54

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

should be used since the one now in use at the University results in the continual building up of graduate work in the already well-known departments, and at the same time makes it difficult for less well-known departments to gain graduate students. The Graduate School has not participated in any of the cooperative studies carried on nationally for the purpose of improving methods of selection of graduate students and candidates for higher degrees. In the judgment of the Dean of the Graduate School as expressed to the Commission, the only really important factors in the selection of a student to specialize in a given field is the student's ability in that field as indicated by ( i ) his collegiate record and (2) the judgments of individuals qualified to recommend him. It is the judgment of the Commission that the present method of selecting graduate students at the University falls short of what it ought to be when one considers present practices among outstanding graduate schools in the United States as well as the distribution of students among departments in the University qualified to do graduate work. Student Mortality A third though minor index of the quality of a student body is reflected in student mortality or the failure of students to remain in school long enough to complete a course of instruction. The University of Illinois participated in a study sponsored by the United States Office of Education in which mortality of students entering as freshmen in the fall of 1931 was investigated in 25 institutions. Of the group of institutions studied, 14 were publicly controlled. The percentage of students leaving the University of Illinois daring or at the end of a four-year period without obtaining a degree was 63.6 percent, whereas the corresponding figure for the whole group (including the University of Illinois), was 64.3 percent. The percentage of freshmen at the University of Illinois who entered in 1931 and who obtained a degree was 27.1 as compared to 28.3 in the group of 14 publicly controlled institutions. The percentage of students transferring to some other institution upon leaving the University, as well as those re[36 —A.C.E. Report]