LINCOLN, NEB. ? The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has met or exceeded several self-imposed goals on student diversity and quality and increased research funding, according to its own annual “report card.”

The “Indicators of Institutional Quality Annual Report” measures outcomes as proposed in UNL’s guideline for improvement.

It noted two enrollment goals are ahead of schedule. The university wanted to increase the percent of minority students to 7.5 percent by fall 2005. It hit 7.6 percent in fall 2003.

Also, a goal to have an average ACT score for incoming freshmen of 24.7 by fall 2005 was realized in earlier this year with an average score of 24.8.

At Kansas University, the average ACT score for freshmen in fall 2003 was 24.1.

“We in the campus community can take great encouragement from the clear evidence of growing achievement,” said Barbara Couture, UNL’s senior vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Other outcomes assessed in the report showed more students are completing their degrees within six years than ever. UNL’s six-year graduation rate increased by more than 5 percent between fall 2002 and fall 2003, although UNL’s rate still falls behind the average of its peer universities.

The rate of nationally competitive awards won by undergraduate students also has climbed, from 11 percent in 1999-2000 to 22 percent in the 2003-04 school year. There, too, UNL falls behind its peer universities, but had narrowed the gap to 6 percentage points last year from a gap of 12 percentage points just two years earlier.