The Ultimate Guide to Higher-Education Student Information Systems

higher-education student information system

By upgrading to a new, integrated student information system, schools can organize data, improve efficiency and promote better communication.

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Understanding Gainful Employment Regulations

When boiled down, education is primarily about experience and outcome. Prospective students and families weighing their college and/or career preparation options often consider several key factors‘among them, affordability and financial aid, program completion time, courses of study, location and potential co-curricular or professional opportunities. And while students are often trying to piece together the educational experience that will best fit them, they are also seeking to understand the likely outcome of that education in the long run‘the anticipated return on a hefty investment.

When Title IV financial aid funds are at play in that very investment, the federal government also wants to see that taxpayer dollars are allocated to schools and programs that set students up for success, which is where gainful employment (GE) disclosure and reporting come in. It’s important for institutions to understand what gainful employment is, what regulations surround it, why it matters and how to accurately disclose and report required information.

An Introduction to Gainful Employment

After an extensive rulemaking process, new gainful employment regulations were published on October 31, 2014 and went into effect on July 1, 2015. The new regulations have more rigorous standards for accountability and transparency to further protect students from poor and sometimes fraudulent career preparation programs that have historically left them saddled with debt they cannot repay. To ensure that students are being put on a path to success, the Department of Education requires certain schools to demonstrate that they adequately prepare students for a�?gainful employment in a recognized occupationa�? in order to be eligible to receive (and continue receiving) Title IV student financial aid funds.

Gainful employment regulations apply to roughly 3,700 institutions around the country, including non-degree educational programs at public and private nonprofit institutions and virtually all educational programs at for-profit and proprietary institutions. These often include post-secondary certificate and diploma programs, training programs and technical and vocational education. Programs leading to an associate’s, bachelor’s, graduate or professional degree at public and private nonprofit institutions of higher education are not considered gainful employment programs in this sense and do not need to comply with the gainful employment standards.

What is a�?Gainful Employment in a Recognized Occupationa�??

Three debt measures are used to determine whether or not institutions are preparing their students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation: repayment rate, debt-to-earnings ratios based on annual income, and debt-to-earnings ratios based on discretionary income. These measures are intended to show that students are prepared for adequate job placement in recognized occupations that pay reasonable living wages, and that students are not so buried in educational debt that their loan payments absorb the bulk of their income.

  • Repayment Rate
    The rate of loan repayment must be at least 35 percent for gainful employment programs to remain eligible for Title IV funds. Repayment rate = original outstanding principal balance of loans paid in full plus the original outstanding principal balance of payments-made loans, divided by the original outstanding principal balance. The value of the fraction is multiplied by 100 to get the repayment rate.
  • Debt-to-Earnings
    For every gainful employment program, the Department of Education will calculate debt-to-earnings ratios based on information supplied by the institution for a specified cohort period (two or four years) as well as from the Social Security Administration.
  • Annual Earning Rate = median annual loan payment divided by the greater of the mean or median annual earnings of graduates. The a�?passa�? threshold for gainful employment standards is that graduates’ annual loan payments are less than or equal to 8 percent of their annual earnings. The a�?faila�? threshold is that the annual loan payment is greater than 12 percent of annual earnings.
  • Discretionary Income Rate = median annual loan payment divided by the discretionary income of graduates (i.e. the higher of the mean or median annual earnings, less 1.5 times the Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines). The a�?passa�? threshold for gainful employment regulations is that graduates’ annual loan payments are less than or equal to 20 percent of their discretionary income. The a�?faila�? threshold is that the annual loan payment is greater than 30 percent of discretionary income.

Programs are considered in the a�?zonea�? if their calculations fall between the a�?passa�? and a�?faila�? thresholds. a�?Faila�? marks for two out of three consecutive years or a combination of a�?faila�? and a�?zonea�? marks for four consecutive years will render a gainful employment program ineligible for Title IV funding.

Understanding Disclosure and Reporting

Schools must disclose information about their gainful employment programs to the public using the Gainful Employment Disclosure Template to help students make informed decisions. In addition, they must submit an official, comprehensive report about students enrolled in these programs to the Department of Education’s central database for student aid, the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).

According to the Department of Education, disclosure of the following data on the institution’s website and in promotional materials is required for each gainful employment program:

  • Occupations associated with program (by name and SOC code)
  • Typical program completion time
  • On-time completion rate
  • Program costs
  • Placement rate
  • Median loan debt

Also according to the Department of Education, reporting of the following data to the NSLDS is required for each student who received Title IV funds for a gainful employment program that they either completed or withdrew from:

  • Tuition and fees assessment before aid or credits are applied
  • Cost of books, supplies and equipment
  • Institutional debt owed apart from Title IV debt (e.g. obligations such as library or laboratory fees)
  • Private loans

The Gainful Employment Reporting Process

Institutions must report on an award year (July 1 through June 30). A student enrolled for more than one award year must be reported in each award year, and a student enrolled in more than one program must be reported for each program. This is accomplished through batch reporting (fixed width or comma separated value formats) through an institution’s Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) Mailbox or online reporting through the NSLDS Professional Access website (NSLDSFAP).

The fully integrated financial aid module in Campus Café’s Student Information System (SIS) streamlines what can be a confusing and cumbersome government reporting process. Our integrated SIS collects and compiles data for NSDLS reporting as well as other required reports for state and government agencies. In addition, it services student communication, billing and packaging related to financial aid and ensures accurate tracking of student placements and hiring metrics. Campus Café complies with federal reporting and keeps tabs on changes in regulations to ensure that the specific needs of your career or vocational school are met.

View the complete Gainful Employment User Guide >

View the Gainful Employment Operations Manual >

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5 Ways A Student Information System Saves You Money

Sometimes it can be hard to quantify the value of a Student Information System (SIS). You know you need one because it provides necessary user interfaces and critical data for strategic decision making, but does it really translate to the bottom line, and save the institution valuable costs and resources?

The answer is a definitive yes. Intuitively, it’s impossible to imagine running an organization effectively without one. The most obvious tangible benefit is the number of man-hours saved from an integrated student information system rather than tracking information in spreadsheets (or multiple databases that don’t talk to each other). But more specifically, I’ve outlined 5 instances where an integrated student softwarewill directly save your institution money or bring more revenue in the door.

#1. Mastery of Government Funding & Federal Reporting

We don’t have to tell you, but a recent report by the GAO (1) found that the government requirements for student financial aid were the a�?most burdensomea�? on colleges and universities, costing hundreds of man-hours and untold dollars to compile. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators echoed this, saying that handling governance took so much time it left less opportunity for counselors to meet in person with students.

Given the immense sums involved it doesn’t appear these regulations are going anywhere, so it’s best for institutions of higher education to develop ways to minimize the burden. Paramount to this is a good student information system.

An SIS will help collect and compile the data for all the required reports for state and government agencies. These include IPEDS, Title IV/NSDLS, Graduate-to-Employment reports, as well as accreditation with some of the requirements outlined here.

IPEDS

The data collected by the Independent Post-secondary Education Data System (IPEDS) covers seven areas: institutional characteristics, institutional prices, enrollment, student financial aid, degrees and certificates conferred, student persistence and success, institutional human and fiscal resources.

Some of the data that a student information system will have available in real-time for these reports is

  • enrollment by state, age, ethnicity
  • graduate completions by field of study
  • retention and graduation rates
  • faculty and staff demographic data
  • revenues and expenditures

Title IV

The process for administering student financial aid is defined under Title IV of the Higher Education Act. The regulations change annually and a school is responsible for understanding each student’s eligibility for the various grants and loans including, Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG), Federal Teacher Education Assistance for College & Higher Education Grant (TEACH), Federal Direct Stafford Loans ‘ Subsidized, Unsubsidized, Grad PLUS and Parent PLUS etc.

Federal regulations require all schools to apply Title IV financial aid funds to tuition, mandatory fees, housing charges and book deferments.

If these federal funds aren’t tracked and applied to student charges correctly it could be costly in terms of fines and lawsuits. A fully integratedschool managementsystem will either handle all the Title IV reporting or tightly integrate with Title IV specialty software.

The other area that a student information system becomes vital is for the calculations required for meeting Title IV eligibility. In recent years new regulations have been instituted for graduate to employment rates and now institutions must certify that each of their gainful employment programs meets the accreditation requirements.

#2. Increase Student Retention

In a prior post on student retention I describe in detail all the ways a student information system can help keep more students enrolled.

This is of great importance since upwards of 30% of students won’t reach completion. When a student drops out, additional funds must be expended to attract and enroll the next student, in addition to the opportunity cost of future revenue.

Without a strong retention program, cost and reputation become central issues. A good student information system with retention scoring, degree auditing, judicial tracking, student attendance and grade book can make all the difference.

For more on how these features help your retention program check out my post, An Integrated Student Information System is Your Best Friend for Retaining Students.

#3. Integrated Data for Better Decisions

Probably the most important way an SIS saves money for your institution is by giving users real-time access to student recordswithout requiring extra resources. Some small to mid-sized schools fall into a trap of purchasing separate school management systems for admissions or student retention and find they need additional man-hours for keeping the data in sync across all departments.

A bigger issue is schools who already have an SIS but purchase the latest new stand-alone software (admissions, for example) with a slick new user interface, hoping to integrate it with their existing SIS. Unfortunately, they realize afterwards the added costs required to maintain both systems outweigh the benefits, and often they plot a costly new course with additional software, training and implementation expenses.

For more details on why this can be a mistake check out, Student Management Software ‘ Integrated ERP or Best of Breed.

#4. More Effective Recruiting

The cost of recruiting a student who eventually enrolls is over $2,400 (2). So all the time and money planning, managing and measuring the recruiting and admissions programs shouldn’t be wasted. The distribution of texts, emails and letters that are well tracked in a workflow that triggers automatic follow up is essential to an efficient recruiting operation.

While efficiency of operations is beneficial, what’s more important is how effective the recruiting operation is at finding and attracting the right candidates. An SIS with a robust admissions module will offer key insights into outreach programs that bear the most fruit and provide the tools for admissions counselors to focus on the most receptive candidates to grow enrollments.

#5. Better Accountability and Fraud Prevention

When mistakes or errors occur, it can be difficult to determine the source. If it’s an honest mistake you want to identify it so it can be rectified. Schools are under increasing scrutiny to guard against unauthorized or malicious activity and need tools to quickly identify areas of concern.

In either case the goal is to hold people working in the system accountable for their actions. That’s why a robust student information system will have an in-depth audit trail and user permission system that allows granular access and records of all changes.

Mistakes can occur when individuals are given access to areas they don’t need, so they inadvertently make a change to something they don’t understand. Robust controls are the key to accountability. User awareness that the system keeps tabs on all activity is a strong incentive for good behavior and accurate recording of data.

Conclusion

Institutions should routinely examine their school administration systems to ensure that they are providing a strategic advantage. If the system is not providing a high level of service or does not provide accurate and easy to obtain reporting, then alternatives should be investigated. The costs associated with poor recruitment, retention, reporting, and accountability may outweigh the cost of replacement. Return on investment should always be measured against these costs to keep your organization running smoothly and efficiently.

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About the Author

Joe Stefaniak has been a leading expert for almost 30 years in the development and implementation of software solutions for higher education. His expertise is in helping colleges and schools streamline operations and manage information for better decision making through analysis and application of best practice software. He founded SCAN Business Systems in 1986. Its flagship product, Campus Café, has grown into a leading provider of educational student information systems. He holds a degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University.

Sources:

  1. The Hechinger Report
  2. NACAC Admission Trends Survey, 2012.