System-Level Accountability Scorecard
Assessments: Progress toward Implementing the Strategic Plan

Access & Opportunities Indicator 1: Access to Programs & Courses - Minnesotans have access to an array of MnSCU programs and courses.

Measure 1E: First Generation Students

Measure 1E reports number and percent of the system’s students in credit courses who are first-generation college students. First-generation students are those whose parents did not attend college (click here for a printer friendly PDF copy of this page).

Significance: Measure 1E is signficant in that research on student preparation, enrollment and persistence in higher education suggests that students whose parents did not attend college are less well prepared for college, less likely to enroll in college and less likely to persist and graduate from college than students with at least one parent that has earned a bachelor’s degree.

Measure: Approximately one-third of the system’s entering undergraduate students with known levels of parental education are first-generation students, as shown in Figure 1E-1. First-generation students constituted 36 percent of entering undergraduate students in Fiscal Year 2003 and 33 percent in Fiscal Year 2004.