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Gainful Employment Electronic Announcement #33 - Upcoming Release of Gainful Employment Informational Rates and Related NSLDS Enhancements Planned for Spring 2012 (Reminder April 20, 2012)

Posted Date: March 21, 2012

Author:  Pamela Eliadis, Service Director, System Operations & Aid Delivery Management, Federal Student Aid

Subject: Gainful Employment Electronic Announcement #33 - Upcoming Release of Gainful Employment Informational Rates and Related NSLDS Enhancements Planned for Spring 2012 (Reminder April 20, 2012)

Note: On March 22, 2012 we updated this announcement to provide additional instructions for the institution's Primary Destination Point Administrator (PDPA) when signing up for the GE notification package on the SAIG Enrollment Web site. The updated text is shown in red below.

We would like to inform the community of the upcoming release of the Gainful Employment (GE) Informational Rates and associated enhancements to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) Professional Access Web site. These enhancements will provide for the display of GE rates and the ability to request the associated back-up data that supports the rates.

In this announcement, we provide important information regarding the following:

Release of GE Informational Rates

In the spring of 2012, the Department of Education (the Department) will release the FY 2011 GE Informational Rates. GE data submitted to the Department by schools this past fall was used to calculate these Informational Rates. Institutions will receive, for each of its GE Programs, Informational Rates for the Debt-to-Earnings Annual Rate, Debt-to-Earnings Discretionary Rate, and Repayment Rate, as well as Loan Medians for Disclosures. For the Loan Medians for Disclosures, institutions will receive three medians, one each for the GE Program’s: Title IV loan debt, private loan debt, and institutional financing debt.

These FY 2011 GE Informational Rates are for informational purposes only and will not result in any sanctions or other adverse action. However, the GE Informational Rates will be made public.

GE Notification Package

The GE notification package will be sent to institutions via the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) and will include GE rate letters for the Debt Measures and the Medians for Disclosures. The package will also include detailed back-up data for each calculation.

To receive GE notification packages, institutions must sign-up on the SAIG Enrollment Web site by April 27, 2012. Institutions that do not sign-up to receive the GE notification package by April 27, 2012 will be able to view their GE Informational Rates and request their GE back-up data by accessing the NSLDS Professional Access Web site; however, the GE rate letters will not be available on the NSLDS Professional Access Web site. As a result, institutions that do not sign-up for the GE notification package will not have access to the additional descriptive information about their rates that will be provided in the GE rate letters.

To sign up for the GE notification package, the institution's Primary Destination Point Administrator (PDPA) must go to the SAIG Enrollment Web site, select Primary Destination Point Administrator Access from the home page, enter his or her identifying information to log in, and select Manage Your SAIG Mailboxes from the Primary Destination Point Administrator Management page. The PDPA must sign up to receive the NSLDS Gainful Employment (GE) Notification and designate an institutional SAIG Mailbox (TG number) to which the GE notification package will be sent. The institution may create a separate SAIG mailbox for this purpose or it may use any of its existing SAIG mailboxes including the one used to submit GE data. However the SAIG Mailbox must be associated with the Main Campus (‘00’ branch code of the six-digit OPE-ID).

Note: If the institution would like to designate another entity (e.g., a third-party servicer) to receive the GE notification package on its behalf, the institution must update the Electronic Application for Approval to Participate in the Federal Student Financial Aid Programs (E-App) to reflect that a third-party servicer will be receiving the package. The institution must add the servicer in Section J, Question 58a, select “Other” in the list of services provided, and enter "GE Rates." Institutions are reminded that, as with all other activities that are performed by a third party, the third-party servicer requirements of 34 CFR 668.25 apply.

Enhancements to the NSLDS Professional Access Web Site

After the release of the GE Informational Rates later this spring, institutions will be able to view their rates on the NSLDS Professional Access Web site by selecting the GE Debt Measure option under the Org Tab.

Additionally, four new GE reports will be available from the Report List under the Report Tab on the NSLDS Professional Access Web site. These reports will provide users with calculation back-up data for either the Debt Measures calculations or the Loan Medians for Disclosures calculations, and may be requested for either a specific GE Program or by calculation year – 2011 for the Informational Rates. The reports will be sent to the SAIG Mailbox associated with the user who requested the information.

Closer to the time the new GE reports are available, we will post the report record layouts on the NSLDS Record Layouts page of the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site. Watch for a forthcoming Electronic Announcement on the IFAP Web site about the availability of the record layouts.

Contact Information

If you have questions about NSLDS, contact the NSLDS Customer Support Center at 800/999-8219. You can also contact Customer Support by e-mail at nslds@ed.gov.

If you have questions about the SAIG, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806) or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.

The Gainful Employment Information Page on the IFAP Web site contains publications and resources on gainful employment as well as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Policy questions that have not already been addressed in the FAQ section of the Gainful Employment Information Page may be submitted to ge-questions@ed.gov.