Student Achievement

Nicolet College centers our work around our learners.  The success of our learners in their academic and future career pursuits are at the core of the Nicolet community.  Guided by the Student Success Framework for the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS), the College defines and measures student achievement in a variety of ways. 

The WTCS Student Success Scorecard provides student achievement measures for all WTCS colleges in the areas of course completion, retention/persistence, credential attainment, transfer to other institutions, job placement, and graduate outcomes. 

Below you will find Nicolet’s key indicators as they related to retention/persistence, credential attainment, and licensure exam pass rates for academic programs that have such exams.

Nicolet College Student Achievement Key Metrics with WTCS Benchmarks 2019–2022*

WTCS Indicator 2: Retention/Persistence

2023 fall-to-spring retention measures students taking courses in fall 2022 who returned in spring 2023.
2023 fall-to-fall retention measures students taking courses in fall 2022 who returned in fall 2023.

WTCS Indicator 3: Credential Completion and Graduation

2023 Three-Year Graduation measures new program students who began in summer 2020, fall 2020, , or spring 2021 and graduated in the 2023 academic year (summer 2022, fall 2022, or spring 2023). 

2023 Six-Year Graduation measures new program students who began their program in summer 2017, fall 2017, or spring 2018 and graduated in the 2023 academic year (summer 2022, fall 2022, or spring 2023).

WTCS Indicator 5: Job Placement and Salary

Graduate outcome data represents the outcomes of student graduates the prior year. For example, the 2022 graduate data represents students who graduated in the 2021 academic year (summer and fall 2020 and spring 2021).  Students are counted in the denominator only if they are available for employment as their primary focus (students who are continuing their education as their primary focus are not included in the denominator). 
 

* To allow for accurate benchmarking, data were derived from WTCS OLAP Data Cubes.  Specifically, the following Data Cubes were used: Retention, Graduation, and Job Placement.  The Data Cubes are populated through the WTCS Client Reporting system.

** First-time students are students who have not been enrolled in their program for the prior four years.

IPEDS Outcome Data

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) gathers information from every college, university, and technical and vocational institution that participates in the federal student financial aid programs Nicolet College reports IPEDS data on enrollments, program completions, graduation rates, faculty and staff, finances, institutional prices, and student financial aid to the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Nicolet College IPEDS Data

Graduate Placement and Employment

Nicolet College regularly surveys graduates of all programs regarding job placement and employment. The report is compiled based on a study performed on graduates six- to twelve-months after they graduate from the College. Click here to view Nicolet’s job placement results for each academic program.

Licensure Exams

Some academic programs at Nicolet College have external licensure exams that are set by industry. The College tracks how well students do on those exams wherever possible.  Below are the pass rates for those exams, by academic program area.

Licensure Exams

Licensure exam pass rate for select programs.

Program Review

As part of a commitment to continuously improving student achievement and student learning, Nicolet College engages in a systematic process of program review.  Each academic program participates in a program review process that lasts three years.  As part of the program review process, academic programs receive an annual data set that covers data related to who is accessing the program, enrollment trends, student success measures, outcome measures, and program level student learning outcomes.  Based on this data and experiences of faculty, the programs set goals for improvement and associated action plans to work on over the next three years.  At the third year's end, the programs begin again, redrafting goals for the next three-year cycle.