WALTHAM, Mass. – Bentley University student-athletes, who topped NCAA Division II in academic success rate for the fifth consecutive year, has once again received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence. There are over 300 Division II institutions and the Falcons are one of only ten to earn the accolade every year in the program's 11-year history.

The award is presented annually to member schools who have earned an Academic Success Rate of 90% or higher.

Bentley has achieved an ASR of 99% each of the last four years and has been at 98% or better for seven straight years.

"I couldn't be more grateful about this news or more proud of our student-athletes," said Bentley Director of Athletics Vaughn Williams. "To be selected for the NCAA Presidents' Award 11 years in a row is an amazing statement about the quality and focus of our student-athletes, past and present."

"It is an honor recognizing 43 schools for this prestigious award," said Steven Shirley, president of Minot State and chair of the Division II Presidents Council. "I applaud these schools and student-athletes for their hard work, commitment and dedication to achieving academic excellence."

The Division II ASR includes transfers into a school in the calculation and removes transfers out who left school while academically eligible. The ASR also includes the more than 31,000 nonscholarship student-athletes who were enrolled in the four years covered in the most recent data.

Even when using the less-inclusive federal graduation rates, student-athletes are outperforming their peers in the general student population by 8%. For Division II athletes, the federal rate increased 1 percentage point to 60%, and the general student body increased 1 point to 52%. Bentley's federal graduation rate was 91 percent, best nationally among Division II institutions and tied with Davidson College for 11th among all institutions.

Eight of the 43 institutions who received the Presidents' Award were from the Northeast-10, most of any conference in the nation.

The others who have received the honor all 11 years are Assumption, Eckerd, Hillsdale, Rockhurst, Rollins, Seattle Pacific, St. Michael's, Stonehill and the University of the Sciences.