Learning and earning: Another banner academic year for UW–Madison degree recipients

The 2025-26 academic year was another record-breaking year as the University of Wisconsin–Madison awarded 14,162 degrees to 14,092 recipients, the most ever for the university.

This included the highest number of bachelor’s degrees (9,606), master’s degrees (3,034) and research doctorate degrees (878) awarded in the school’s nearly 180-year history.

Heaven Williams was one of those record-breaking 14,092 degree recipients. For her, last academic year’s success came with another great outcome: Her dream job.

Out of the gate, she wanted to find work that connected all of her studies — a bachelor’s degree in health promotion and health equity, her certificate in African American studies and her certificate in disability rights and services. And bonus points if her job meant that she could be within an hour of her hometown of Kenosha.

During her final winter break as an undergraduate, Williams started her job search with support from the School of Education Career Center, even having interviews before graduation. By June, Williams accepted a job as a care coordinator at the Centers for Independence in Milwaukee where she works with adults with mental illness and substances abuse, building a team of providers to help them with recovery and eventual independence.

As she hoped, the job checked off all of her boxes.

“For this to be my first job after graduating, well, it couldn’t be more perfect.” Williams says.

UW–Madison Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs John Zumbrunnen sees Williams’ success as a reflection of the university’s mission. “At UW–Madison, we work hard to ensure that our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to reach their full potential in their careers and in their communities.”

And UW undergraduate alumni are reaching their potential not only in record numbers but also at a record pace and rate. The 2025-26 undergraduate “time to degree” average — measured in calendar years from entrance date to degree date — was 3.77 years (the shortest ever). At the same time, the four-year graduation rate hit an all-time high of 80.3%.

Zumbrunnen added that these milestones also translate to success for the state. “UW–Madison helps provide Wisconsin employers access to a deep pool of skilled and motivated graduates who will be able to have long and impactful careers as part of our state workforce.”

Williams says that it was not just academics that prepared her for that workplace. She points to the leadership skills she gained from starting UW–Madison’s first ASL student organization, Badger Sign, and to the job skills she acquired as an intern at the Wisconsin Department of Public Health’s Birth to 3 Program. But, in the end, she says the sense of community at the university was its greatest asset, from lasting friendships to professors who “were always there to be utilized as a resource.”

“It always comes back to community,” Williams stresses. “The relationships I made here mean so much more than taking a class for me.”

Though she scored her dream job right after graduation, Williams has higher aspirations and plans to head back to school in the fall of 2027 to get her master’s in public health. And for her, the very idea of public health is about giving back to the community, something she also learned at UW–Madison.

“I’m a firm believer in the Wisconsin Idea. I believe in relentless curiosity, culture and humility.” Williams says. “I look back at what I’ve done throughout my undergrad career, and I’ve shown and proven that I am the Wisconsin Idea.”

Thinking back on her time at the university, Williams adds, “UW taught this girl from Kenosha, Wisconsin — a scared, but very emboldened, 18-year-old who thought that she knew everything — what community and service are really about. When you sit back and think about it, that is big and very beautiful.”