Liberty Athletics GSR Climbs to New All-Time High
11/16/2022 3:37:00 PM | General
Success on and off the field of competition continues to find Liberty Athletics as the department has a new all-time record high graduation success rate.
The NCAA released its annual graduation success rate (GSR) information yesterday, which revealed Liberty's student-athletes are graduating at an 89 percent rate.
As part of its mission to afford the highest quality academic, athletic, spiritual and social experience to its student-athletes, Liberty Athletics seeks to have its student-athletes finish their time on the Mountain with their college degree of choice.
Liberty Athletics continues to meet this goal as the athletics department has extended its previous record GSR of 88 percent, which it has held for the last three years.
Liberty's student-athlete graduation success rate (GSR) has seen an increase or matched its previous year's total each of the last 10 years and 11 out of the last 12 years, improving from a 69 percent rate in 2009-10.
Liberty's student-athlete graduation success rate the last 10 seasons: 2009-10 (69 percent), 2010-11 (70 percent), 2011-12 (74 percent), 2012-13 (71 percent), 2013-14 (78 percent), 2014-15 (80 percent), 2015-16 (81 percent), 2016-17 (87 percent), 2017-18 (87 percent), 2018-19 (88 percent), 2019-20 (88 percent), 2020-21 (88 percent) and 2021-22 (89 percent).
"We are grateful that Liberty student-athletes continue to perform at such a high level in the classroom," said Liberty Director of Athletics Ian McCaw. "Liberty Athletics' record-setting academic performance is a credit to the dedication of our student-athletes, academic commitment of our coaches and outstanding work of Kristie Beitz and the Academic Affairs for Athletics staff. Moreover, Liberty's faculty play a vital role in the academic development of our student-athletes and are to be commended for their excellent work."
Liberty's Academic Affairs for Athletics staff is the "team behind the team" that supports Liberty student-athletes. The group spends countless hours walking alongside Liberty's student-athletes, helping them balance all aspects of life while pursuing their path toward a degree that will allow them to be successful following college.
Additionally, 19 of Liberty's 20 NCAA Division I athletics programs have a graduation rate of 80 percent or higher. Liberty's student-athlete graduation success rate was one percentage points behind the graduation rate NCAA's national average (90 percent), which matched last year's all-time high rate.
Four of Liberty's 20 athletics programs currently hold a 100 percent student-athlete graduation success rate (women's basketball, women's lacrosse, women's tennis and volleyball).
The Graduation Rates Institution Report gives graduation information about the most recent six-year graduating class of students and student-athletes who entered as freshmen in 2014-15. The graduation rate (percent) is based on a comparison of the number of students who entered a college or university and the number of those who graduated within six years.
The NCAA membership asked the NCAA in the early 2000s to develop a measure of student-athlete graduation success that more accurately reflects modern-day patterns of student enrollment and transfer. As a result, the NCAA created the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for Division I and the Academic Success Rate (ASR) for Division II.
The NCAA GSR differs from the federal calculation in two important ways. First, the GSR holds colleges accountable for those student-athletes who transfer into their school. Second, the GSR does not penalize colleges whose student-athletes transfer in good academic standing. Essentially, those student-athletes are moved into another college's cohort.
