Sept. 3, 2003

Seattle - Student-athletes at Washington are graduating above the national average for other Division I programs according to the latest graduation rate figures released by the NCAA.

According to the NCAA report of the federally mandated Graduation Rates, 70 percent of all Husky student-athletes who entered Division I colleges and universities in 1996 graduated in the six-year window established by the U.S. Department of Education as the standard. The new rate is three percentage points higher than a year ago and eight percentage points better than student-athletes at other Division I institutions.

Washington's graduation rate for those individuals (434) who have exhausted their eligibility since entering the University in 1987 was 89 percent.

Using the freshman class of 1996-97, Husky student-athletes graduated at 70 percent over the six-year period used to compile the report. The national average for Division I institutions was 62 percent.Washington's graduation rate was the highest since the Department of Education began tracking graduation in 1984. The Division I mark of 62 percent was also the highest since the origination of the report.

The Huskies' graduation rate for its student athletes trails the average for all University of Washington students by just one percentage point.

'Our goal is to match or exceed the graduation rate for our general student body, so we are pleased with the report,' said Husky athletic director Barbara Hedges. 'We have made significant strides in our academic graduation rate in recent years and we will continue to concentrate on this area and provide the resources to make this a priority. We will break ground on a new $18 million academic center/crewhouse in January that will be a tremendous boost to those efforts.'

UW's football grad rate was 67 percent (second best among Pac-10 schools), which was 13 percent better than the national average.

The complete Graduation Rates Report is available at http://www.ncaa.org/grad_rates/2003/.

Comparison Among Pac-10 Schools

                                              SA ExhaustingSchool              All-Students S-A  Football  EligibilityAll Division I           62             59           54           82Arizona                  55             60           33           77Arizona State            52             65           54           88California               84             73           44           84Oregon                   58             62           50           92Oregon State             59             51           50           90Stanford                 93             84           82           96UCLA                     85             64           61           85USC                      76             56           45           84Washington               71             70           67           89Washington State         62             67           60           91
S-A: Student-Athletes