The Kentucky Center for Statistics’ interactive Postsecondary Feedback Report seeks to provide Kentuckians with the tools to make data-informed college and career choices. The report allows users to explore outcomes for students by Kentucky's postsecondary institutions, major, credential type, and demographic. This post provides an overview of the state-level highlights found in the report. You can explore individual school highlights within the report on our website. 

The majority of enrollees are from Kentucky

By leveraging data from within the Kentucky Longitudinal Data System via the Council on Postsecondary Education, the first dashboard in this report provides insights about college enrollment as recently as 2022:

• A total of 248,148 undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled in Kentucky postsecondary institutions in 2022.
• Seventy percent of students were from Kentucky.
• The largest percentage of out-of-state students originated from Ohio (14.9%), Tennessee (9.5%), Indiana (8.5%), and countries outside of the U.S. (8.5%). 

Education majors have the highest employment rates

•       Education majors had the highest in-state employment rates 3-, 5-, and 10-years post-completion; Health majors had comparatively high rates; STEM majors had the lowest. 
•       Education majors had the highest median salary three years post-completion at $51,603.
•       STEM majors had the highest median salary five years post-completion at $56,680, and 10 years post-completion at $70,371. 

Students who received Pell Grants had a higher rate of qualifying employment

The Demographic Employment Outcomes section of the Postsecondary Feedback Report breaks down employment outcomes at the 3-, 5-, and 10-year marks, for various demographics of postsecondary completers. These student groups are adult learners, enrollment intensity (meaning full-time or part-time student status), ethnicity, gender, low income status, race, and underrepresented minorities. Employment percentages and median wages can be found for each of these groups, as well as comparisons with peer groups. For example, the data show that:

• Five years post-completion, 56% of completers with a low income status (those who received Pell Grants) had qualifying employment. During the same time frame, 49% of non low income completers had qualifying employment.
  

•          Non low income students had a median wage of $50,212, whereas those designated as low income had a lower median wage of $38,157

Doctoral degree earners had the highest median income

The dashboard also breaks down wage and employment outcomes based on the level of credentials obtained.

• Ten years post-completion, individuals with a doctoral degree had the highest median income, $108,756, of all credential levels. 
• Three years post-completion, individuals with associate degrees had the highest rate of in-state employment at 68%.
• At 3-, 5-, and 10-years post-completion individuals with master’s degrees had higher rates of in-state employment than those with bachelor’s and doctoral degrees. 
  

Many students continued academics after credential completion

The Completion & Transfer Outcomes dashboard provides a glimpse of degree completers who continue their academic journeys by seeking a higher degree. For example, at least 64% of students who earned an associate degree in 2016 had earned a bachelor’s degree by 2019. By 2022, 78% had a bachelor’s degree or higher. Of the students who earned a bachelor’s degree in 2016, by 2019, at least 62% had earned a master’s degree, and 7% had earned a doctorate. By 2022, 86% of those with a bachelor’s degree had earned a master's or doctorate.

Transfer students see employment success

The final element of the Postsecondary Feedback report shows enrollment and employment outcomes for transfer students who enrolled in a credential program between the fall of 2013 and 2015. Of those students, 28.9% first enrolled in two-year institutions, and 71.1% enrolled in four-year institutions. Within two years of initial enrollment, 59.8% of those students were enrolled in four-year institutions, and 40.2% were enrolled in two-year institutions. Seven years after initial enrollment, 75.9% of all postsecondary completers were employed. 

Explore the report

The Postsecondary Feedback Report is updated on an annual basis. Visit the interactive report to view outcomes by major, demographic, and institution.