Here's how Coastal Bend spring college and university graduation counts compare
Across the Coastal Bend, thousands of students are celebrating earning a college degree this month.
Del Mar College plans to celebrate spring 2024 graduates Friday. Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's graduates will walk the stage Saturday at the American Bank Center. Texas A&M University-Kingsville held commencement ceremonies last week.
Here's information about recent and upcoming ceremonies, as well as how this spring's graduating cohorts compare to groups from previous years.
Del Mar College
In total, 926 Del Mar College Students earned 1,137 associate's degrees and certificates this spring, according to a news release.
Close to 700 plan to participate in graduation. The event begins at 7 p.m. at the American Bank Center and will be livestreamed at youtube.com/live/2umaT5HiHno. Corpus Christi Army Depot deputy and chief operations officer Roderick "Rod" Benson will be the commencement speaker.
This year, the college celebrates an increase in the number of degrees and certificates awarded, as well as an increase in the number of graduates.
Last spring, the college awarded about 938 certificates, degrees and occupational skills awards to about 780 May graduates, according to a news release last year.
Graduations are typically held in the spring and fall.
During the 2021-2022 school year, Del Mar College awarded about 1,320 total associate's degrees, according to data reported to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The most recent year in the coordinating board's online degree dashboard is 2021-22.
The coordinating board data indicates a similar total of associate's degrees, about 1,340, were awarded in 2020-21. That's an increase from the year previous, 2019-20, when the coordinating board counts just under 1,200 degrees. Prior to 2019-20, the number of associate's degrees Del Mar College reported to the coordinating board had been dropping from a peak of over 1,400 degrees in 2017-18.
According to the dashboard, 62% of the associate's degrees in 2021-2022 and 2020-2021 were awarded to female students.
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
This spring, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi received about 730 applications for bachelor's degrees. Including graduate degree programs, over 1,200 students are expected to receive degrees this week.
The final totals are dependent on grades that will be finalized this week.
The ceremony is scheduled for Saturday at the American Bank Center. The College of Education and Human Development, College of Liberal Arts, College of Nursing and Health Sciences and College of Science ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. The ceremony for the College of Business, College of Engineering and Computer Science and School of Arts, Media and Communication will begin at 2 p.m.
The ceremony will be livestreamed at tamucc.edu.
The university also holds summer and fall graduations.
During the fall 2023 commencement ceremony, over 960 students received degrees.
By comparison, the university had over 1,270 spring graduates and 1,000 fall graduates in 2022-23. Summer 2023 also had the largest summer commencement class in the university's history with about 740 students, according to past commencement news releases.
According to data reported by the university through the Common Data Set initiative, between July 2022 and June 2023, the university awarded a total of 1,676 bachelor's degrees, 13 post-bachelor's certificates, 1,250 master's degrees, 4 post-master's certificates and 47 doctoral degrees.
The counts from 2022-23 indicate a decrease of about 100 bachelor's degrees, but an increase of about 300 master's degrees from 2021-22.
For students who began in 2017, 34% graduated within six years.
Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Texas A&M University-Kingsville awarded 509 bachelor's degree at its commencement ceremony Friday. Including master's and doctoral degrees, a total of 791 students walked the stage this spring.
In the fall, 460 graduates earned degrees. This past summer, 227 degrees were awarded. More information is available online about each graduating class, including the breakdown of degrees and graduate demographic information, such as Texas county or state of origin and gender, ethnicity and whether students were first-time college students.
In comparison, 735 graduates walked the stage during spring 2023 ceremonies, celebrating the completion of 741 total degrees.
According to annual totals reported by the university to the Common Data Set, during the 2020-21 school year, the college awarded 970 bachelor's degrees, 492 master's degrees and 30 doctoral degrees. The six-year graduation date for students who began in 2016 was 44%.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Coastal Bend colleges and universities celebrate graduation
