MLIS Student Achievement Data

Master of Library and Information Science program accreditation standards and outcomes

The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program in the School of Information at �鶹��Ƶ��ȫ University has been continuously reaccredited since 1961. In February 2019, the MLIS program was reaccredited through 2025. It is the only program in the State of Ohio and serves students primarily through our online program.

Student Profile, Achievements

Persistence and Graduation Rates

Most MLIS students begin their programs in the fall semester. To show the persistence rate of students, the table below focuses on students who start in the fall term. All students who persist graduate but are not necessarily registered every semester. Retention is only a measure of students who continuously enroll. �鶹��Ƶ��ȫ provides persistence and graduation statistics because of our focus on degree completion.

Percentage of Enrolled or Graduated Students per Cohort
TERM	ENROLLED	After 1 Year	After 2 Years	After 3 Years	After 4 Years	After 5 Years	After 6 Years
Fall 2017	41	80.49%	78.05%	78.05%	80.49%	80.49%	80.49%
Fall 2018	98	86.73%	81.63%	82.65%	82.65%	82.65%	82.65%
Fall 2019	94	82.98%	84.04%	82.98%	84.04%	84.04%	0.00%
Fall 2020	108	90.74%	89.81%	85.19%	86.11%	0.00%	N/A
Fall 2021	70	88.57%	90.00%	87.14%	0.00%	N/A	N/A
Fall 2022	83	79.52%	77.11%	0.00%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Fall 2023	85	88.24%	0.00%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Fall 2024	104	0.00%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Data report downloaded through �鶹��Ƶ��ȫ University Institutional Research, 2/24/2025.

Many of the students in the MLIS program are employed while they study, resulting in time to completion taking 2-4 years for the majority. The table below shows the graduation rates of the fall cohorts.

Percentage of Graduated Students per Cohort
TERM	ENROLLED	After 1 Year	After 2 Years	After 3 Years	After 4 Years	After 5 Years	After 6 Years
Fall 2017	41	2.44%	43.90%	65.85%	78.05%	80.49%	80.49%
Fall 2018	98	1.02%	52.04%	76.53%	81.63%	81.63%	82.65%
Fall 2019	94	1.06%	44.68%	75.53%	77.66%	80.85%	0.00%
Fall 2020	108	1.85%	38.89%	76.85%	83.33%	0.00%	N/A
Fall 2021	70	0.00%	51.43%	77.14%	0.00%	N/A	N/A
Fall 2022	83	1.20%	39.76%	0.00%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Fall 2023	85	8.00%	0.00%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Fall 2024	104	0.00%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Data report downloaded through �鶹��Ƶ��ȫ University Institutional Research, 2/24/2025.

Achieving Student Learning Outcomes

MLIS students are successful at achieving the learning outcomes of the program. Through the student exit survey, an average of 93% of respondents feel confident or very confident in their mastery of program learning outcomes. Below is a chart with the student achievement per each learning outcome.

Learning Outcome	% of students who are confident or very confident
Outcome 1a: Apply the field's foundational theories, principles, values, ethics, and skills to everyday practice. - Analyze and discuss how environmental context governs and shapes information production, sharing, and management, including social, cultural, economic, and legal aspects of the information society	91.67%
Outcome 1b: Apply the field's foundational theories, principles, values, ethics, and skills to everyday practice. - Define core values and principles of information professions	97.22%
Outcome 1c: Apply the field's foundational theories, principles, values, ethics, and skills to everyday practice. - Apply major theories, models and approaches describing how people access and use information to real-life contexts, and incorporate information fluency	86.11%
Outcome 2a: Critique and synthesize research and identify appropriate research methodologies to solve problems in the field - Describe the range of research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, that are used to investigate questions	88.89%
Outcome 2b: Critique and synthesize research and identify appropriate research methodologies to solve problems in the field - Articulate and apply steps in the research process to identify a research problem, formulate a researchable question, choose an appropriate method to investigate a research problem, satisfy ethical concerns related to the protection of human subjects, data gathering, analyzing the data, drawing conclusions, and communicating the results	88.89%
Outcome 2c: Critique and synthesize research and identify appropriate research methodologies to solve problems in the field - Create an effective research proposal for conducting some form of guided research and/or for a financial grant application	86.11%
Outcome 3a: Analyze and engage in the changing cultural, educational, and social roles and responsibilities of librarians/information professionals and the environments they work in within the global society. - Give examples of communities in which information institutions may be situated and describe political, social, technological, economic, and cultural forces that influence those communities	94.45%
Outcome 3b: Analyze and engage in the changing cultural, educational, and social roles and responsibilities of librarians/information professionals and the environments they work in within the global society. - Investigate issues related to diversity, ethics and intellectual freedom in the context of the information ecology	97.22%
Outcome 3c: Analyze and engage in the changing cultural, educational, and social roles and responsibilities of librarians/information professionals and the environments they work in within the global society. - Explain characteristics of individuals, groups, and the organization that influence behavior and operations in information institutions	94.44%
Outcome 4a: Evaluate systems and technologies in order to implement improvements and innovations relevant to a particular information context. - Recognize and define key concepts relating to technologies used in the organization, storage and retrieval, distribution, and consumption of information	83.33%
Outcome 4b: Evaluate systems and technologies in order to implement improvements and innovations relevant to a particular information context. - Discriminate among information systems using core principles and functions of information organization and retrieval	77.78%
Outcome 4c: Evaluate systems and technologies in order to implement improvements and innovations relevant to a particular information context. - Apply information organization concepts as they relate to searching, browsing, and navigating information retrieval systems of any type effectively	86.11%
Outcome 5a: Identify needs and connect individuals and communities with information that engages and empowers them. - Use different approaches to represent documents for retrieval in different environments at a basic level of proficiency	86.11%
Outcome 5b: Identify needs and connect individuals and communities with information that engages and empowers them. - Apply major theories, models and approaches describing how people access and use information to real-life contexts, and incorporate information fluency	88.89%
Outcome 5c: Identify needs and connect individuals and communities with information that engages and empowers them. - Distinguish among the different ways of valuing information and how definitions of value shape the ways in which information is created or produced, managed, distributed, and consumed	88.89%

Employment Picture of 2023 Graduates

The iSchool surveyed 2023 graduates of the MLIS program in the summer of 2024 to determine employment success. Of those who responded:

82% are employed in a field related to their program of study
88% of those employed have permanent positions
80% of those employed are in professional positions
76% of graduates are employed in the type of institution they intended at the beginning of their studies.
45% of graduates were able to find a position before they graduated.

Our graduates take advantage of opportunities such as those listed below to help them secure their first professional position.

Chart listing what iSchool MLIS grads said was most helpful in obtaining their first professional position. Previous employment experience was 81% of respondents, followed by subject specialization (52%), workplace specialization (38%), tech skills (33%), professional networking (19%), fieldwork/internship (5%) and other (5%).

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