REPORT | Ohio colleges

Highlights from seventh annual Performance Report for Ohio's Colleges and Universities:
The average tuition rate for a four-year public university in Ohio is 8,553 -- 47 percent higher than the national average of 5,836.
Higher costs are a problem at Ohio's two-year public institutions, where the average tuition for the 2006-07 academic year stood at 3,505 compared with 2,272 in the U.S..
Full-time enrollment at state universities and community colleges jumped 12 percent from 306,256 in 1998 to 351,634 in 2005.
About 104,500 people received a degree from a public or private college in Ohio in 2005. Just over half were bachelor's degrees. Ohio ranks below national levels when it comes to higher educational attainment. About 30 percent of Ohio adults have an associate degree or higher, compared with 34 percent in the U.S.
Ohio's ability to retain its recent graduates dipped. About 75 percent of 2005 graduates from public universities stayed in the state a year after receiving their degrees -- down from a retention rate of 78 percent for each of the previous five years.
Source: Ohio Board of Regents