REGENTS ROUNDUP: Program expansions for NSU and SDSU win OK from regents

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RAPID CITY — Northern State University and South Dakota State University received approval Friday from the state Board of Regents to expand how and where they offer some key programs.

The regents gave the go-ahead for Northern State to use the Internet to provide its bachelor degree program in business administration, and South Dakota State likewise got the green light to offer its bachelor degree in sociology online.

Northern State also won approval to provide its bachelor degree program in banking and finance at Capital University Center in Pierre and University Center in Rapid City. Northern already offers a two-year associated degree in banking and finance at those two institutions.

South Dakota State meanwhile received the regents’ OK to start offering its accelerated one-year bachelor program in nursing through Northern State in Aberdeen. The program is for students who already have received a bachelor degree in another major.

INTO THE SUNSET: The regents honored Dakota State University president Doug Knowlton with a plaque and a round of applause Friday to commemorate his service from 2004 through early 2012.

Knowlton is leaving the Madison campus to accept an administrative position with the Minnesota state university system.

During his time at DSU, the graduate degree programs doubled to six, with a seventh on the way, from three, and student enrollment climbed to about 3,100 from about 2,300. DSU also developed its first doctorate-level program.

WHERE THEY GO: A new study that tracks where state university students go after graduation will be ongoing, according to regents’ Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul Turman.

The study links graduation records, Department of Labor information and National Student Clearinghouse data.

The results for the most recent four years available, through 2009, show 70 percent of South Dakota residents who graduated from the state universities during that span took jobs in South Dakota or continued in pursuit of higher degrees in South Dakota.

For non-residents who graduated from state universities during that same period, 30 percent took jobs or continued their education in South Dakota.

The study looked at where the students were within 12 to 15 months after graduation. Regent Harvey Jewett, of Aberdeen, praised the analysis but suggested waiting 24 months might be more accurate because of circumstances for some students involving military service and preparation for pursuing advanced professional degrees in fields such as law and medicine.

Turman said he intends to continue updating the results annually to track students through their fifth year after graduation. He stressed that the data-matching analysis provides more reliable results than commonly used surveys that are based on graduates’ voluntary responses.

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