Public Accountability Data 2021-22

During Fall 2022, the following information was gathered using an online data tool provided by Virginia Commonwealth University's Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support.

Retention and Graduation Data 

These data track each first-year (freshman) class of mass communications majors. The statistics show the percentage of students who continue in mass communications each year and then graduate within four, five or six years.

Reporting Method

One wrinkle in the reporting method used in the statistics above is how it treats first-year students who start in mass communications but then change majors. The graduation rates in the spreadsheet reflect the fact that these students do not graduate as mass communications majors, which is true. However, many if not most of these students do graduate from VCU, but in another discipline (as noted by data under being retained and/or graduated from the College of Humanities and Sciences and/or VCU).

The reported graduation rates for mass communications would be much higher if we tracked only students who start and stay as mass communications majors. For example, of the 116 first-year students who entered the mass communications major in Fall 2012, 68 remained in the major for at least three years. Of those 68 students, 61 – or 90% – graduated with mass communications degrees.

Another wrinkle is that the data do not include students who enter the Robertson School after their first year from other VCU majors or from other universities. The Robertson School serves hundreds of such students, with about half of all Robertson School students being transfer students.

Additional Student Data

Besides requiring the publication of retention and graduation data, the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications suggests that accredited schools provide the public with additional indicators of student achievement. Below are those indicators.

In addition, the Robertson School serves more than 125 undergraduates pursuing a minor in media studies. Moreover, the school's faculty also serves students in two master's programs (integrated communication and multimedia journalism) and an interdisciplinary doctoral program (media, art and text).