Student Right to Know (SRTK) refers to a federally-mandated public disclosure of a college’s Completion Rate and Transfer Rate. The intent of SRTK is to provide to the consumer a statistic of comparable effectiveness that they can use in the determination of college choice. All colleges nationwide are effectively required to participate in the disclosure of rates.
SRTK is a “cohort” study; that is, a group of students who are first-time freshmen who are enrolled full-time and are degree-seeking as identified in a fall term and their outcomes are measured over a period of time. The outcomes that the two SRTK rates measure are Completion (the total number of students in the cohort who earn a degree) and Transfer (the total number of cohort noncompleters who were identified as having enrolled in another institution). The tracking period of the cohorts is three years, at which time the SRTK rates are calculated and made public.
SRTK has its merits in that it attempts to provide a standardized measure of college effectiveness nationwide. However, in order to fully understand what SRTK rates mean for a college, one should also know its limitations. There can be data collection issues involved in the acquisition of valid numbers used in deriving SRTK rates; since there is no central nationwide “clearinghouse” of transfer data, it is impossible to generate accurate transfer-out rates.
In compliance with the Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act of 1990, Cottey College makes available its completion and transfer rates to all current and prospective students.
The graduation rate for first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who entered Fall 2017 was 61%.