Education Department Eyes New Requirements for All Programs

Inside Higher Ed

Katherine Knott

June 20, 2023

Colleges and universities and those representing them in Washington, D.C., are concerned about a set of proposals from the Education Department that could potentially usher in a new era of accountability for all types of programs.

Under the plan, the department would report more data about all programs on students’ debt loads and earnings and could potentially use that information to revoke an institution’s eligibility to access federal financial aid. Colleges and universities generally support the new transparency requirements but say the other aspects are vague and subjective.

Supporters of the department’s plans say the additional program-level data will be useful in seeing how students fare after college and that more accountability is needed for all programs.

The deadline to submit comments on the plan is today.

Higher education experts and lobbyists see the department’s proposals, which require institutions meet new conditions to access federal financial aid, as a step toward creating a federal rating system that would identify poor-performing programs, building on the administration’s plans to create a list of programs it says provide a low financial value to students.

The Biden administration is proposing to calculate and report whether students can afford their yearly debt payments and that they are making more than an adult who didn’t go to college for all postsecondary programs with more than 30 graduates or completers. Only those programs at for-profit institutions as well as nondegree programs in any sector could lose access to federal financial aid if they fail either of the tests in two consecutive years under the new proposed gainful-employment rule.

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