Posted Date:September 13, 2016
| Author: | Pamela Eliadis, Service Director, System Operations & Aid Delivery Management, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: Gainful Employment Electronic Announcement #89 - Additional Information for Accurate GE Reporting by October 1, 2016 Deadline
This Electronic Announcement provides additional information to assist institutions with their submission of accurate Gainful Employment (GE) Program data by October 1, 2016 for the 2015-2016 Award Year as well as important information about corrections to previously-reported data.
As noted in Gainful Employment Electronic Announcement #86, the deadline for institutions to report the required GE Program information for the 2015-2016 Award Year is October 1, 2016. Institutions may submit the information using the GE online reporting option under the Enrollment tab of the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) Professional Access Web site, the GE batch file submission process through the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG), or by using the NSLDS Gainful Employment Spreadsheet Submittal Format (online upload process). Refer to Gainful Employment Electronic Announcement #86 for more information about these reporting options.
Completers List Corrections Will Not Update Previously-Reported GE Information
In Gainful Employment Electronic Announcement #88, we described how to view the results of the Department’s review of corrections submitted by institutions during the Draft GE Completers List corrections process that ended July 28, 2016.
It is important to note that corrections submitted by the institution and approved by the Department through the Draft GE Completers List corrections process will not update the GE records that were originally reported by the institution to NSLDS. To avoid having to make the same corrections again in subsequent reporting cycles, all Draft GE Completers List corrections that were approved by the Department should be corrected by the institution by October 1, 2016, using one of the GE reporting options described above (GE online reporting, SAIG batch process, or spreadsheet upload). To ensure that institutional reporting of GE data is accurate in subsequent years for the Debt-to-Earnings (D/E) rates calculation, it is critical that institutions make these approved corrections to their previously-reported data.
GE Reporting Tips
We have reviewed GE Program data submitted by institutions during the last reporting cycle and have identified several specific areas that institutions should pay careful attention to when reporting or correcting GE data:
Private Loans, Tuition and Fees, and Allowance for Books, Supplies and Equipment: Institutions must ensure that the figures reported for these items are accurate and reflect the amounts of loans, fees, and allowances that the student incurred while attending the GE Program. For example, institutions are expected to report the total amount of tuition and fees assessed to the student for the entire program, not just for the award year, before any scholarships or discounts. When a student has withdrawn and later re-enrolled, these totals must include the amounts from the student’s prior enrollment before the withdrawal. Figures must be reported in whole dollars only.
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Institutional Debt: The institutional debt that must be reported is the amount that is owed to the institution by the student as of the date of the student’s withdrawal from or completion of the GE Program. Figures must be reported in whole dollars only.
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Period of Attendance: Institutions must ensure that program attendance dates in the GE record are accurate and reflect the actual dates the student attended the GE Program. When a student has withdrawn and later re-enrolled, two separate GE records must be reported.
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Changing CIP Codes: If an institution has changed a Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) code for a GE Program, the program must be reported under the new CIP code for all award years, even for those award years when the program was operating under a different CIP code. This is necessary for the program to be classified as one GE Program across multiple years for the purposes of D/E rates calculations and other metrics.
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Adding New Programs: Institutions must ensure that a new GE Program (defined for these purposes as a unique CIP code/credential level combination) that has not previously been reported is reported by the GE reporting deadline. Entire programs cannot be added or deleted during the Draft GE Completers List correction process.
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Reviewing and Correcting Errors: Institutions that use the GE batch file submission process through the SAIG will receive an Error/Acknowledgment file in their SAIG mailbox after a file is processed. Institutions must review the Error/Acknowledgement file(s) and correct any errors within 10 days of when the file(s) are received.
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Confirming Reporting: Institutions can use the Gainful Employment List and Gainful Employment Detail pages on the NSLDS Professional Access Web site to confirm that their GE records have been received by NSLDS. Refer to Chapter 3 of the NSLDS Gainful Employment User Guide for more information.
For further information on reporting, review the Gainful Employment: Reporting Data to NSLDS webinar recorded in January 2015. In addition, a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for GE reporting is available under the “Frequently Asked Questions” section of the Gainful Employment Information Page on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site.
Contact Information
If you have questions about reporting GE data to NSLDS, contact the NSLDS Customer Support Center at 800/999-8219. You can also contact Customer Support by e-mail at nslds@ed.gov.
The Gainful Employment Information Page on the IFAP Web site contains publications and resources on GE as well as FAQs. If you have a policy question about the GE Regulations that has not already been addressed in the FAQs section of the Gainful Employment Information Page, please submit the question to ge-questions@ed.gov.