Public Disclosure of Consumer Information

Public Disclosure of Consumer Information

In keeping with its mission to provide an environment in which exceptional teaching fosters student learning, scholarship, and achievement, Longwood University carefully tracks the performance of its students, both in the assessment of student learning outcomes and through institutional measures of student achievement. As noted in Longwood’s Strategic Plan 2019-2025, Forefront for the Commonwealth (pdf), retention and graduation are key metrics that reflect institution-wide progress.

In accordance with SACSCOC standards, its policy on Institutional Obligations for Public Disclosure (pdf), and HB 1980 passed in the 2015 legislative session of the General Assembly as Chapter 328 to add 23.1-409. Transparency in higher education information to the Code of Virginia, Longwood publishes statements of its goals for student achievement, the success of students achieving those goals, and basic financial information for undergraduate students. These data will be updated annually each fall. For additional statistical data about Longwood, see other data sources on the Institutional Research web page and the University Analytics web page.

Student Achievement

Longwood University uses four institutional measures of student achievement to track student progress through time. These measures are 1) the first-time full-time student second-year retention rate, 2) first-time full-time student six-year graduation rate, 3) the three-year completion rate for graduate students who were full-time at some point, and 4) the licensure exam passing rates in certain fields.

Measure 1: First-Time Full-Time Retention

Retention rates are based on the number of first-time-in college, full-time undergraduate students enrolled at Longwood in the fall semester after completing high school. The first-time full-time retention rate is the percentage of that cohort who return to Longwood the following fall. Longwood’s target for this measure is 80%, and its acceptable threshold for first-time full-time retention rate is 75%. The threshold was exceeded for the 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023 cohort years. The threshold was met for the 2017 and 2018 cohort years. The threshold was not met for the 2020 cohort.

Second-Year Retention Rates of First-Time-in-College, Full-Time (FF) Undergraduate Degree-Seeking Students

Source: Longwood University IPEDS reports for 2012-2023
¹Cohort Year refers to the year in which a group of students entered Longwood University in the fall term as full-time, first-time degree or certificate-seeking undergraduate students.
²Original Cohort refers to the number of students who entered Longwood University as full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seekers during the fall term of a given academic year.
³Exclusion, in accordance to IPEDS criteria, refers to omission of those students from the original FF cohort for both retention and graduation rates calculations. These criteria are: death or total and permanent disability; service in the armed forces (including those called to active duty); service with a foreign aid service of the federal government, such as the Peace Corps; or service on official church missions.

Measure 2: Graduation

Graduation rates are calculated for each cohort of first-time-in-college, full-time undergraduate students. The rate is expressed as the percentage of those students who graduate in six years. Undergraduate graduation rates is one of seven priorities in the Longwood’s Strategic Plan 2019-2025, Forefront for the Commonwealth (pdf). Longwood’s target for this measure is 70%, and its threshold for this measure is 65%. The threshold was exceeded in the 2013, 2014, and 2016 cohort years. The threshold was met in the 2015 cohort year.  The threshold was not met in the 2017 or the 2018 cohort year.

6 Year Graduation Rates of First-Time-in-College, Full-time (FF) Undergraduate Degree-Seeking Students

Source: Longwood University IPEDS reports for 2023-2024
¹Cohort Year refers to the year in which a group of students entered Longwood University in the fall term as full-time, first-time degree or certificate-seeking undergraduate students.
²Original Cohort refers to the number of students who entered Longwood University as full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seekers during the fall term of a given academic year.
³Exclusion, in accordance to IPEDS criteria, refers to omission of those students from the original FF cohort for both retention and graduation rates calculations. These criteria are: death or total and permanent disability; service in the armed forces (including those called to active duty); service with a foreign aid service of the federal government, such as the Peace Corps; or service on official church missions.

Measure 3: Completion of Graduate Students

Completion rates are calculated for each cohort of graduate students who were full-time for at least one semester of their graduate career at Longwood. The rate is expressed as the percentage of those students who graduate in three years. Longwood’s target for this measure is 91%, and the established threshold for this measure is 86%. The threshold was achieved for the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 cohort years.

3 Year Completion Rates of Those Graduate Degree-Seeking Students who were Full-Time

Source: Office of University Analytics
¹Cohort Year refers to the academic year in which students entered Longwood University as degree-seeking graduate students. Students may not have been full-time in their first semester, but they were full-time for at least one semester of the three-year period.

Measure 4: Licensure Examinations

For some degrees, students are required to take an external examination for licensure in the field. In this case, the academic program sets a threshold for acceptable pass rates.

• Students pursuing elementary, middle school, or special education licensure must pass specific sections of the Praxis II test, which measures general and subject-specific teaching skills and knowledge, to be certified to teach in Virginia. Longwood’s target and threshold for this measure aligns with the state’s required biennial passing rate of at least 80%. For each biennium 2015 through 2023, 100% of elementary, middle school and special education teacher program completers passed the Praxis II in their area(s) of licensure and/or endorsement.
• Graduate students pursuing the MS in Communication Sciences and Disorders must achieve state licensure as a speech-language pathologist in the fall following graduation. The department has set a threshold and target licensure rate of 80%. In 2019-20, 95.4% of graduates earned state licensure by the following fall. In 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23, 100% of graduating students earned state licensure. In 2023-24, 95% of graduates earned state licensure by the following fall. Each of these results exceeds the threshold.
• Nursing students pursuing the BSN degree must pass the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) in order to practice as an RN. The Virginia Board of Nursing expects a first-time pass rate of not less than 80%, which is Longwood’s threshold. The Department of Nursing has set a target pass rate of 90%. The classes of 2018, 2020 and 2024 exceeded the threshold with a 100% first-time pass rate, as did the classes of 2019, 2022, and 2023 with a first-time pass rate of 98% and the class of 2021 with a first-time pass rate of 93.5%.

Financial Information

Base Undergraduate Tuition and Mandatory Undergraduate Comprehensive Student Fees

The average annual percentage increase in base undergraduate tuition, mandatory undergraduate non-E&G fees, and total average cost of undergraduate tuition and fees for the past ten years is provided below. The comprehensive fee covers auxiliary costs such as the Farmville Area Bus (FAB), student health and wellness services, student union programming, intramural and campus recreation programs, information technology services, and Athletics. The fee also supports the University’s online course management system (Canvas), to include hardware, software, instructional design and delivery training, and technology support services for online courses.

Longwood strives to make a college education affordable and accessible to Virginia residents. Over the past ten years, the average percentage increase in undergraduate tuition and mandatory fees is 3.1%. The annual increase in the past four years ranged from 0.1% to 7.2%.

Full-Time In-State Undergraduate Tuition and Mandatory Fees

Data Source: State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), TF03: Full-time Resident Undergraduate Student Charges
¹Tuition and mandatory E&G fees include the in-state undergraduate tuition for a standard full-time load and mandatory student charges used to support instruction and education-related activities included in the Education and General (E&G) program. E&G subprograms include instruction, research and public service, academic support, student services, institutional support, and the operation and maintenance of physical plants.
²Mandatory non-E&G fees include mandatory student charges used to support non-instructional activities, such as student health services, athletics, recreational activities, campus transportation, and capital debt service.

Use of Student Activity Fees

Longwood University Student Activity Fees for undergraduate students are assessed at $6 per undergraduate credit hour. The Student Government Association distributes the student activity fees to student clubs and organizations through a request process administered by the Student Finance Committee, which reviews funding requests and makes allocation recommendations to the SGA for final approval. The amounts allocated for each organization are available here.

Postsecondary Education and Employment

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) publishes information about post-completion employment, enrollment in graduate education, and wages for each public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth. This information is part of Longwood’s institutional profile on the SCHEV website.

Annual Operating Budget

The current and past Longwood University annual operating budgets and plans are available.

Programs Leading to Professional Licensure

In September 29, 2015, Longwood University was approved to be a member institution of the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA). This affiliation allows our students to complete internships and other in-place field experiences for credit in any participating SARA state (for details, please visit State Authorization).

Any Longwood University degree program that potentially leads to professional licensure are designed to prepare students to meet the professional licensure requirements in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Information about such programs and public disclosures of professional licensure in other US states and territories is available on the Programs Leading to Professional Licensure page. Prospective and current students, particularly those outside of Virginia are strongly encouraged to work with program faculty about any questions that may arise. Additional questions may be sent in writing to the Office of Accreditation and Compliance.