BOSTON -- Northeastern University student-athletes continue to excel academically and achieve at a level higher than their Division I peers, according to data released Wednesday by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
This latest Academic Progress Rate (APR) report comes one week after four Northeastern teams were recognized by the NCAA with Public Recognition Awards for high academic achievement by posting multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sport.
Among Division I institutions, student-athletes improved academically for the 13th consecutive year, earning another all-time high four-year Academic Progress Rate. The 2016-17 overall four-year rate is 983, up two points from the four-year rate announced last year.
Highlights from Northeastern's 2016-17 APR report include:
• Northeastern had 10 teams (baseball, women's basketball, men's cross country, men's ice hockey, women's ice hockey, women's rowing, men's soccer, women's soccer, men's track and field, volleyball) earn a perfect APR score of 1000, marking the third straight year with at least nine perfect scores.
• Of the 15 Northeastern teams included in the APR report, 12 posted a four-year APR score at or above the national average for their respective sports (indoor and outdoor track and field combined).
• Three teams (baseball, men's soccer, men's track and field) posted APR scores 25 points above the national average for their respective sports, while the men's basketball team was above the national average for the 11th straight year.
• The men's ice hockey team saw the biggest increase among Northeastern teams, improving from a 975 APR in 2015-16 to a perfect 1000 in 2016-17, while the volleyball team (+17) and swimming and diving (+12) also saw significant increases.
• Every Northeastern team had an APR score above 970 (40 points above the NCAA's 930 figure for possible penalties)
NCAA President Mark Emmert applauded Division I student-athletes for their continued academic achievement and dedication to earning a degree.
"We've seen a remarkable evolutionary shift in Division I over the last 14 years. Administrators, coaches and students all make academic achievement and graduation top focus areas," Emmert said. "The APR is a powerful metric that leads ultimately to more graduates and more student-athletes with better opportunities after college."
The APR, created to be a more real-time measurement of academic success than graduation rates, is a team-based metric through which scholarship student-athletes each term earn 1 point for remaining eligible and 1 point for staying in school or graduating. At schools that don't offer scholarships, recruited student-athletes are tracked.
Every Division I sports team calculates its Academic Progress Rate each academic year. The NCAA reports both single-year rates and four-year rates, on which penalties for poor academic performance are based. National aggregates are based on all teams with usable, member-provided data from April 6.
