The Office of Institutional and Academic Insights (IAI)
Student Achievement
The truest measure of student success is how well students are prepared to accomplish their personal and professional goals. However, this is not easy to quantify. SCU conducts alumni surveys to get this information and it is customary for institutions of higher education to use graduation and retention rates as proxies for post-graduation student achievement. Since SCU is a professional school, many of its programs prepare students for fields in which they must pass a professional licensure exam. Professional schools consider pass rates as well as graduation and retention rates.
Retention can mean several things. In our KPIs we use it to mean the percent of students enrolled in one term who either graduate or re-enroll in the next term. If it is the very next term, we call this term to term retention. We also measure and report year to year retention each fall.
Retention can also mean the percent of students in a starting cohort who return for the second term. This is what we mean by ‘retention’ in a student success context.
We adhere to the standard of reporting graduation rates at the advertised normal completion time of the program (100%) and again at one and a half times the normal completion time. Our program lengths are measured in terms and many of them are an odd number of terms long. In this case, we round up to get the 150% mark. For example, for a three-term program, we report the percentage of the original cohort who graduated in three terms and the percentage who graduate within five terms.
| Program | Pass Rate |
| Doctor of Chiropractic (NBCE) (Four year rolling average 2019-2022) | 87% |
| Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine Programs (NCCAOM) | 100% |
| Master of Science in Medical Science (Tiber Comprehensive Exam) | 100% |
| Master of Science: Physician Assistant (PANCE) | 91% |
| Ayurvedic Practitioner Certificate (NAMACB) | 88% |
Doctor of Chiropractic1
DAcCHM Licensure and National Examinations
| NCCAOM Pass Rate2 (2017 to 2022) | 100% |
| CAB Pass Rate (2018-2022) | 88% |
Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination3
| Grad Year | Group | Candidates who took PANCE | Exam Attempts | Exams Passed | Program Exam Pass Rate | National Pass Rate | % who ultimately passed |
| 2019 | All Takers | 35 | 38 | 35 | 92% | 91% | 100% |
| 1st Time | 35 | 35 | 32 | 91% | 93% | 100% | |
| 2020 | All Takers | 46 | 51 | 45 | 88% | 91% | 98% |
| 1st Time | 46 | 46 | 42 | 91% | 93% | 98% | |
| 2021 | All Takers | 49 | 66 | 46 | 70% | 91% | 94% |
| 1st Time | 49 | 49 | 33 | 67% | 93% | 94% |
SCU Ayurveda Practitioner Students
| NAMACB Pass Rate (2022 Jan- 2022 Dec)4 | 85% |
1 CCE pass rates will be updated annually by August 1. Display format prescribed by CCE policy 56.
2 NCCAOM – pass rates will be updated annually, by April.
3 PANCE scores; NCCPA publishes prior year national averages once a year in January.
4 NAMA results for Ayurveda Practitioner available twice a year; January and July.