CHICAGO -- UIC's 2016-17 academic year wrapped up on campus with final exams last week, and on Wednesday, May 10, the NCAA released the four-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) for 2015-16.

Eleven of the UIC's 18 athletic programs (swimming and diving are combined on the men's and women's side) either stayed the same or showed an increase from the 2014-15 report. The average APR score this year is 978, up four points from 974 a year ago. Two team, women's gymnastics and volleyball earned perfect marks of 1,000 and last week each received an NCAA Public Recognition Award for finishing in the top 10 percent of their respective sports. Women's gymnastics has earned an APR score of 1,000 in each of the last three years, dating back to the 2013-14 report.

Three UIC teams made a leap of more than 20 points from last year. The men's basketball team increased its APR by 21 points, while men's gymnastics rose by 27 points. The most sizable leap, 29 points, was made by head coach Hans Neufeld's men's tennis program. Basketball also improved the greatest on the women's side with an elevation by 16 points, while the volleyball program showed a five-point increase to achieve it's perfect score, the first since the inception of this reporting.

Every Division I sports team across the nation calculates its Academic Progress Rate each academic year, like a report card. Scholarship student-athletes each semester earn one point for remaining eligible and one point for staying in school or graduating.

To read the full NCAA APR release, please click here.