By STEVEN HERBERT | City News Service

LOS ANGELES — UCLA’s athletes had a school-record 90 percent Graduation Success Rate, while USC’s was 86 percent, matching its high, according to the latest figures released today by the NCAA.

The UCLA record and USC tying its record Graduation Success Rate mirror the national trend. The Graduation Success Rate for Division I athletes was a record 88 percent, 1 percentage point higher than last year.

The 2018 Graduation Success Rate measures how many student-athletes in the classes of 2008 through 2011 graduated within six years of their enrollment.

There were six UCLA teams with 100 percent Graduation Success Rates — women’s basketball, golf, gymnastics, softball and tennis and men’s tennis.

Eighteen of UCLA’s 20 programs had a Graduation Success Rates of 80 percent or higher, and 14 of the 20 were at 90 percent or higher. (UCLA has 25 sports. For this report, cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field are counted as one sport, and beach volleyball did not begin until 2013).

“At UCLA, on a campus with no shortage of achievements, this one stands out for a number of reasons,” UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said.

“Reaching such a high Graduation Success Rate is a testament to a long-term vision, a lot of hard work, and constant collaboration between our academic and student services staff, our coaching staffs, and of course, our student-athletes. I’m incredibly proud of this accomplishment, and know we will continue to strive for excellence, both athletically and academically.”

Four USC teams had perfect scores — women’s soccer, rowing and tennis and men’s tennis.

The USC football team was at a program high for the third consecutive year at 75 percent, 20 percentage points higher than in 2005. The four USC teams with perfect scores all either equaled or set all-time highs for their programs, as did women’s swimming and men’s track.

“We continue to be very pleased that our student-athletes are performing well in the classroom,” said Denise Kwok, USC’s director of Student-Athlete Academic Services. “These Graduation Success Rate numbers once again show that USC has built a strong culture of academic success in the athletic department.

“That is due to the hard work and dedication our student-athletes put into their academic pursuits, the valued collaboration with our USC faculty and instructors and the support given to our student-athletes by our coaches and the SAAS staff in our Stevens Academic Center.”