Increasing numbers of students are leaving universities without degrees, although retention rates remain the same as the 1970s, according to a report released by a Washington-based nonprofit group.

The pool of students is just getting bigger.

The report "A Matter of Degrees," released by the Education Trust, showed 63 percent of students are graduating with a degree in six years from four-year universities but that proportion has remained the same for 30 years.

"Generally you hear 'Well, we're doing as well as can be expected with the students we have,'" said report author Kevin Carey, adding universities have to put more effort into keeping students enrolled.

National Center for Education Statistics data shows MSU graduates 69 percent of students within six years, higher than the national rate of 63 percent.

"Sixty-nine percent is quite good nationally," Carey said, "But there are similar institutions that are doing better."

Penn State University is close in size and demographics to MSU but graduates 80 percent of students within six years, according to National Center for Education Statistics data.

The University of Minnesota was the lowest among Big Ten schools at 53.7 percent while Northwestern University was the highest among the conference universities at 93.1 percent.

The report also pointed to discrepancies among retention rates for poor and ethnic-minority students, as schools average a gap of 11 percent between white students and black students graduating in six years, Carey said. At MSU, that gap is 17 percent.

Many ethnic-minority and poor students come from lower-quality schools, Carey said.

"They're coming a little bit behind the starting line," Carey said.

Carey said universities wanting to improve graduation rates can start by avoiding general classes that fill up quickly and are needed to graduate.

The factors affecting retention rates are nothing new to MSU's Office of Supportive Services.

The office is one of several federally funded programs at MSU established to provide support to first-generation, low-income students who require additional support at college. The office splits $640,000 with the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities.

"We do everything we can to level that playing field," office director Renée Sanders-Lawson said.

"Even with funding, that only allows us to serve a percentage of the students who qualify for this."

The office offers tutorial help, academic advising and other services to about 450 new students a year, Sanders-Lawson said.

Some programs within the office focus on members of traditionally under-represented groups at universities such as ethnic minorities or students with disabilities.

"It's really about economics," Sanders-Lawson said. "Students that come from families where they have persons who went to college, come to the table with an advantage

"Many times the race becomes an issue by default."

Sanders-Lawson said 47 percent of students involved with the office graduate within six years.

"None of us, I think, are where we want to be," she said. "I would like all of the students that enter our program to graduate, and that should be a goal for the university also."

Some students see extended or unfinished college terms in different ways.

"People I started with, plenty of them haven't graduated," May graduate Quinton Brown said. "It took me five-and-a-half years."

Brown said he originally expected to finish his degree in four years but changing his major and financial difficulties slowed him.

School officials might speed up student-graduation rates if they explained the requirements better, but in the end, it's up to the student, he said.

"It doesn't surprise me," he said.