"Among other provisions, the [Post-9/11 GI Bill] created the Yellow Ribbon Program, which provides dollar-for-dollar matching funds to private institutions offering tuition scholarships to veterans who have served at least 36 months of active duty since September 10, 200," writes George Washington University Steven Knapp in Inside Higher Ed. "Why participate? There are many reasons, but here are two that were at the forefront of our thinking at George Washington University when we were in the first wave of institutions to sign up for the Yellow Ribbon Program."
"According to National Center for Education Statistics, the average student loan for a bachelor's degree recipient in the 1992-93 school year was approximately $12,000. According to the Project on Student Debt, the 2008 numbers are even worse, bringing us to our current average, a debt of $23,200 upon graduation," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "So what's a student to do? The good news is that there are still jobs to be had, and a few in particular are noteworthy for those with debt; these positions have high employment rates, several of them are actually increasing in demand and - here's the really good news - they come with a nice, fat median salary."
The National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) has developed new IPEDS reporting time burden estimates that take into account the type of institutions (4-year, 2-year, and less-than-2-year) as well as keyholder experience. Recognizing that there will still be great variability in the time required to complete IPEDS by different institutions and keyholders, NCES estimates that the time required to complete the IPEDS survey components annually ranges from 57 hours for a returning keyholder at a less than 2-year institution to 206 hours for a new keyholder at a 4-year institution. NCES encourages comments by Oct. 1 from IPEDS keyholders, and others who assist in reporting IPEDS data, based on their experiences submitting IPEDS data to NCES.
"Although the federal government will make millions of subsidized Stafford student loans at the bargain interest rate of 4.6 percent this academic year, a few thousand lucky students will get even better deals -- loans that charge no interest at all," U.S. News & World Report reports. "A handful of charities and colleges make student loans that only require the borrowers to repay the amount they borrowed -- saving students thousands of dollars."
Webinars are cost-effective and time-effective way to train staff, but sometimes, well ... they can be boring. Fortunately, a few simple steps can help you shift your webinar experience into high gear. Whether you are a trainer or a learner, Brave New World of Webinar Training, by Brenda Hicks, offers ideas on how to take maximum advantage of the webinars in your future, and learn to love online learning.
"The State University of New York has adopted new practices to help prevent students from falling victim to deceptive credit card marketing that can burden them with too much debt in tough economic times," Reuters reports. "Under an agreement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose office began investigating the student loan industry in 2007, the university on Tuesday committed to Cuomo's 'Student Credit Card Reforms for Colleges and Universities.' The university is the first in the United States to accept the reforms, according to Cuomo's office."
FSA's fall conference will be held in Orlando, Florida at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. To date, there are over 3,700 financial aid professionals registered for the conference and the Department anticipates that over 5,000 will ultimately attend this event. The Department is offering approximately 55 breakout training sessions on a range of topics including federal student loan regulations, processing, servicing, reconciliation, and system(s) usage, as well as data security, program integrity, cohort default rates and more. The Department has posted the tentative agenda online. The Department plans to post individual session presentations in the coming months and will not be providing handouts at the conference.
On July 26, the Federal Register published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would define "gainful employment" for non-degree programs at public and nonprofit postsecondary institutions, and virtually all programs at for-profit institutions. Comments on this NPRM must be submitted by Sept. 9. This NPRM is one of the most rigorously explained and complex proposals to come from the Department of Education. Careful analysis and comments by institutions will be critical for a final rule that is both meaningful and achievable. NASFAA has posted several resources to help you comment on the gainful employment NPRM.
Each year prior to Sept. 30, the Department uses information collected on the Campus-Based Reallocation Form (ED Form E40-4P) to reallocate unexpended FSEOG, Federal Work-Study, and Perkins Loan program funds from the previous award year as supplemental allocations for the current award year. Later this month the Department will distribute the supplemental Campus-Based awards for the 2010-11 Award Year to schools that meet the required conditions for receipt of such funds. The information in this announcement explains how the 2010-11 supplemental award funds for each Campus-Based program were distributed and how schools will be notified of the supplemental awards.
"Excelencia in Education expects to announce on Wednesday several plans to accelerate its national efforts to improve college completion among Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority group in the United States," the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "Fifty groups will be joining the campaign, the nonprofit organization will say. Among them are the National Governors Association, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Maricopa Community Colleges. The organizations will assist Excelencia in drafting a policy road map to achieve the increase. Excelencia plans to unveil the policy document in March."
Early each year, the Department implements Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System functionality that supports processing for the upcoming award year. This year's implementation schedule will differ from previous years. To assist the financial aid community in its planning for the 2011-12 Award Year, this announcement provides important information about COD implementation plans.
The Career College Association (CCA) announced today that it will officially become the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) on Sept. 22. CCA President Harris N. Miller said the new name reflects the changing nature of higher education in America. "The time has come to recognize that higher education institutions of every stripe are taking on more of a professional and career focused emphasis. More employers than ever expect job applicants to attain higher level degrees. And more working adults want innovative solutions to the delivery of this postsecondary education."
In 2003, Congress established the Financial Literacy and Education Commission. Congress charged the Commission to "improve the financial literacy and education of persons in the United States through development of a national strategy to promote financial literacy and education." The Department of the Treasury invites public comment on the draft National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2010. Comments must be received on or before Sept. 19 to be considered.
"After two decades of consistent growth, adult students -- defined by most educators as those 25 and up -- are now the majority in Indiana," the Indianapolis Star reports. "But the state's massive $253 million pot of financial aid for needy students goes almost exclusively to young, full-time, traditional college students. A drop in the bucket, about $5.3 million, is set aside for 'part-time' students."
"For-profit colleges, under attack in Congress and faced with regulation that could ravage their revenues, are staging an aggressive, but increasingly hopeless, campaign to ward off legislation and defeat a proposed stricture," the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "In recent weeks, their representatives have filed thousands of comments criticizing the Education Department's 'gainful employment' rule, which would cut off federal student aid to programs whose graduates have high debt-to-income ratios and low loan-repayment rates."
"When it comes to student loan collection policies and protecting the rights of borrowers in default, this Administration has unfortunately followed in the footsteps of its predecessors, too often using 'take no prisoners' collection tactics even if it means denying borrowers their legal rights," writes Deanne Loonin, a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center and the Director of the Center's Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, in Higher Ed Watch. "I have come to see this not as a blind spot, but rather as an intentional way of doing business."
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