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Higher Education Act Reauthorization

Higher Education Act Analysis  
august 2008

Source: American Council on Education - Higher Education Act Analysis (PDF)

*Student Affairs IMPACT

College Costs | Accreditation | Student Financial Aid | Key Disclosures and Compliance | Studies | Effective Date and Next Steps

On July 31, Congress completed reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) by passing the Higher Education Opportunity Act—five years late and after an unprecedented 14 extensions of the statutory deadline. The president signed the bill into law on August 14, 2008.

Except for rules regarding relationships between higher education institutions and student lenders, the act does not address federal student loan programs, which were reauthorized and modified by the 2007 College Cost Reduction and Access Act.

Although the act includes burdensome new reporting, disclosure, and other requirements, it reflects noteworthy progress in that Congress was persuaded to reject yet more onerous and problematic proposals. As the bill is hundreds of pages long, this summary highlights selected key new provisions only.

College Costs

″ College affordability and transparency lists: Beginning July 1, 2011, ED will publish national lists for each of nine institutional categories, naming top 5 percent of institutions with (1) the highest tuition and fees; (2) the highest "net price;" (3) the largest percentage increase in tuition and fees; and (4) the largest percentage increase in net price. Institutions with large percentage increases in either tuition and fees or in net price will be required to submit a report to ED providing the reasons for the increase and the steps that will be taken to reduce costs. ED will issue an annual report on those institutions and post their reports on the College Navigator web site.

″ Net price calculator: Within one year after enactment, ED will consult higher education institutions and other experts to develop a "net price calculator," a tool intended to provide a student and his or her family with a more individualized estimate of the net price of particular higher education institutions. Within two years after ED makes the net price calculator available to institutions, each institution must post a net price calculator on it's own web site. Institutions may choose to use ED's calculator or may develop their own, provided it contains the same data elements as ED's calculator.

″ Consumer information: Within one year after enactment, ED will post on the College Navigator web site 27 categories of information about each institution that participates in Title IV programs. The information is to include institutional mission; statistics on applications, admission, enrollment, SAT or ACT scores, transfer students, male and female students, in-state and out-of-state students, racial and ethnic groups, disabled students, degrees awarded, time to completion of degrees, faculty, cost of attendance and financial aid; alternative tuition plans; and campus safety information. Most of this information is currently collected by ED. ED will also post on the College Navigator web site, in a sortable and searchable format, information on the cost of higher education for each institution that participates in Title IV programs.

Accreditation

In the context of the report of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education and other calls for increased accountability, accreditation was one of the most controversial topics in HEA reauthorization.

″ Student achievement: The act recognizes that institutions, not accreditors, set student achievement measures and that such measures may vary among institutions and programs. The act forbids ED from establishing criteria that specify, define or prescribe the standards accreditors use in assessing an institution's success with respect to student achievement.

Student Financial Aid Provisions

As previously noted, federal student aid programs were revised extensively in the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007. While the Title IV programs were not the primary focus of the reauthorization bill, the act nonetheless contains a wide array of federal student aid provisions.

″ Veterans: The act contains a number of provisions designed to assist veterans and their families with postsecondary education. The act directs ED to create a searchable web site containing information on financial aid and other benefits and services for military members and veterans. In addition, the act also provides a right to readmission for veterans in certain circumstances and modifies the treatment of veterans benefits in calculating need.

″ PLUS Loan deferment: The act allows graduate students to receive an in-school deferment on their PLUS loans. Parent borrowers were given this authority in the College Cost Reduction and Access Act.

″ Financial aid application process: The act aims to make financial aid application processes and forms more user-friendly for students and parents. Among other changes, it calls for fewer, more understandable questions on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), requires ED to develop a model format for institutional financial aid offer forms that institutions provide to applicants, and directs ED to develop a system through which students can receive early estimates of the amount of aid they might be eligible to receive.

″ Students with intellectual disabilities: Under the act, great flexibility is granted to waive Title IV eligibility criteria related, for example, to grant ceilings, need analysis and satisfactory progress in order to make students with cognitive disabilities eligible for Pell Grants, Federal Work-Study (FWS), and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) funds.

Key Disclosures and Compliance Provisions

The act addresses a number of topics related to campus climate and responds to recent, much publicized incidents on college campuses. Although many of these provisions impose new disclosure and reporting requirements, the requirements are less onerous than some Congress considered.

″ Campus safety: In response to the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech and similar events, the act expands institutional reporting requirements under the Cleary Act to include (1) reports of written agreements between a higher education institution and state and local law enforcement agencies and (2) a statement on the institution's policies regarding immediate emergency response and campus evacuation procedures. While the act does not contain the controversial language from the House version of the bill that would have required campus officials to provide their communities "timely warning" of campus emergencies within 30 minutes after learning of the emergency, it does require campus officials to notify the campus community immediately upon confirmation of a significant emergency, unless issuing the notification will compromise efforts to contain the emergency.

″ Peer-to-peer file-sharing: Congress included in the act several copyright-related requirements. Institutions will be required to disseminate an annual disclosure to students that (1) states that unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, such as through peer-to-peer networks, may subject students to civil and criminal penalties, (2) describes the penalties for such violations, and (3) includes the institution's policies on peer-to-peer file sharing. Institutions must also develop a plan to combat unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material. In developing the plan, institutions must consider technology-based deterrents. Report language accompanying the law explicitly states that technology-based deterrents include "bandwidth shaping" and "traffic monitoring to identify the largest bandwidth users." Institutions must also offer, "to the extent practicable" and in consultation with the chief information officer, alternatives to illegal downloading.

″ Fire safety: The act requires institutions with on-campus housing to publish annually a fire safety report which provides statistics on a dormitory-by-dormitory basis. The report, which is to be shared with the campus community and the secretary of education, must detail such information as the number of fires, deaths, injuries, fire drills, fire-related property damage and the type of fire detection systems in each building.

″ Textbook cost containment: Effective July 1, 2010, institutions will be required to disclose in their course schedules, "to the maximum extent practicable," the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) of every required and recommended textbook and supplemental materials and retail price information. Lacking accurate information about the ISBN number at the time the course schedules are set, the institution is permitted to indicate that this information is "to be determined." Publishers are required to provide faculty with information on price, copyright dates of the three previous editions, any substantial revisions between a new edition and prior iterations, whether the textbook is available in any other format and at what price and to supply textbooks in bundled and unbundled formats.

″ Missing persons: The act requires institutions that both participate in any federal higher education programs and maintain on-campus housing to establish a missing student notification policy for students who reside in on-campus housing and have been determined after an investigation by campus security officials to be missing for 24 hours.

″ Protection of student speech and association rights: The act contains a very general "sense of Congress" provision that supports open exchange of ideas and discourages intimidation, harassment, discrimination and chilling of student speech. The act also expresses the sense of Congress that "students should be treated equally and fairly."

Studies

The act authorizes various studies.

″ Diversity: The secretary of education will commission a national study on minority male achievement and task the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study to identify any race, ethnicity or gender bias in standardized admission tests.

″ Analysis of regulation of higher education: The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences will conduct a study of federal regulation of higher education.

″Effective Date and Next Steps

″ Effective date: The provisions of the act are effective August 14, 2008, unless otherwise noted. Institutions must take their obligations under the act seriously and make a good faith effort to comply with its provisions, as they would with any new federal law.

However, as a practical matter, a number of provisions have ambiguities that will need to be addressed and clarified during the regulatory process.

″ Negotiated rulemaking: Changes to Title IV of the act are subject to negotiated rulemaking. The secretary of education is required to select participants who are expert or experienced in the subjects under negotiation, and who reflect sector diversity, representing large as well as small participants, and persons who serve local areas and national markets. ED is also required to select individuals who can legitimately claim to speak for those whom they represent.

″ Master calendar: Changes to Title IV are also subject to the "master calendar," which requires regulations to be finalized before November 1 of a given calendar year in order to take effect the following July 1.

″ New Programs: The act includes approximately 70 new programs but only a fraction of these are likely to be funded.

″ Authorization period: The act generally reauthorizes HEA provisions for six years, through September 30, 2014.