New York taxpayers are pouring billions into a public university system that is graduating fewer students every single year.
Quick Take
- City University of New York’s associate degree graduation rate fell from 39.8% in 2023 to 36.5% in 2025.
- Bachelor’s degree completion rates dropped from 61.9% to 57.9% over the same three-year stretch.
- City officials say lingering pandemic disruption is likely a factor, but no single cause has been proven.
- Critics call it a “two-pronged problem” tying weak K-12 prep to CUNY’s own internal struggles.
Graduation Rates Keep Sliding at City University of New York
City University of New York has seen its graduation numbers slide for five straight years, according to the city’s own Mayor’s Management Report. The six-year systemwide graduation rate for associate degree students dropped from 37.6% in 2024 down to 36.5% in 2025. That marks a steady decline from the 39.8% mark the system posted just two years earlier in 2023.
New York Post first reported the drop, calling the decline “alarming” and noting that associate degree completion has fallen nearly 10 percentage points over the last five years. That is not a small dip. It represents thousands of students who enrolled at a public university funded by New York taxpayers and never finished their degree within the expected timeframe.
Bachelor’s Degree Students Are Also Falling Behind
The decline is not limited to two-year programs. City University of New York’s baccalaureate graduation rate dropped from 61.9% in 2023 to 60.0% in 2024, then fell again to 57.9% in 2025. That means more than four in every ten students seeking a four-year degree at a City University of New York school are not finishing on time, if they finish at all.
These numbers come straight from the city’s own management report, not from an outside watchdog group or a political opponent. New York City government is tracking its own university system’s performance and reporting that performance is getting worse, year after year, right in an official public document.
City Officials Point to a “Two-Pronged Problem”
The official city report offers one explanation. It states the declines “likely reflect the lingering disruption of the COVID-19” pandemic, a cautious way of acknowledging a bad trend without pinning it on one single cause. That framing lets both the university and the broader public school pipeline avoid direct blame for the outcome.
Education observers describe the crisis as a two-pronged problem. One prong is New York City’s public school system, which is supposed to prepare students academically before they ever set foot on a college campus. The other prong is City University of New York itself, which must provide the academic support, advising, and resources students need to actually finish their degrees once they arrive.
Where the Money Goes and What Taxpayers Get Back
City University of New York operates as a massive public institution funded heavily by city and state taxpayers every single year. When completion rates fall this consistently, it raises a basic question every taxpayer should be asking. Are these dollars actually producing graduates, or are they simply subsidizing a revolving door of students who never cross the finish line?
One bright spot inside the system is the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, known as ASAP, which has produced far stronger three-year graduation rates than the standard track for decades. Independent evaluations found ASAP students graduated at nearly double the rate of similar students not enrolled in the program. That success story shows targeted, well-run support can work. It also raises the question of why those results have not spread further across the rest of the system.
Parents, students, and taxpayers deserve straight answers from both City Hall and City University of New York leadership. A five-year decline in graduation rates at a taxpayer-funded public university is not a minor footnote. It is a signal that something in the pipeline, from public school classrooms to college advising offices, is failing the very students these institutions were built to serve.
Sources:
nypost.com, ground.news, facultysenate.baruch.cuny.edu, york.cuny.edu
