Both 3,800 students and UNC Charlotte administrators have reasons to celebrate on Dec. 13-14.

The students will receive bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees during Fall Commencement.

The university’s good news: winning recognition as a national leader in increasing timely degree completion for enrolled students.

The Fall Commencement will involve three ceremonies in Halton Arena.

Commencement ceremonies will begin at 1 p.m., Friday, Dec. 13, when the University will confer degrees upon undergraduates and graduates from the College of Arts + Architecture, College of Health and Human Services and Belk College of Business.

During a 10 a.m. ceremony Saturday, Dec. 14, the University will award degrees to undergraduate and graduate students from the College of Computing and Informatics, Cato College of Education and the William States Lee College of Engineering.

Undergraduate and graduate students from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences will receive their degrees in the afternoon at 3 p.m.

National Award Recognizes UNC Charlotte for Degree Completion Gains

The good news about on-time graduation improvements came last month from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. The group named UNC Charlotte the winner of its 2019 Degree Completion Award.

Through a student-centered approach, UNC Charlotte has improved its four-year graduation rate by 17 percentage points and consequently has seen a 5 percent decline in student debt upon graduation.

“We recognize the importance of a college degree to the jobs of the future and want every student to finish what they start. As a public university committed to access and equity, we also want to do our part to lessen the student debt burden by ensuring our University’s processes do not impede students from moving toward timely completion of their degrees,” said Joan Lorden, provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs.

“We applaud UNC Charlotte for its exemplary work to advance student success, equity and degree completion,” said APLU President Peter McPherson.

“Perhaps most important of all, UNC Charlotte has implemented a continuous improvement process to build on these gains,” McPherson said. “Their investment in student-centered transformation has produced sizeble gains across all student subgroups in retention and graduation rates. We’re thrilled to spotlight their team’s work so other institutions can learn from it.”