Finding 539102 (2024-002)

2024-002 – Update of Enrollment Status when a Student Withdraws (Significant Deficiency) Department of Education, SFA Cluster; Compliance Requirement Affected – Special Tests and Provisions Criteria: Institutions are required to report enrollment information under the Pell grant and the Direct loan programs via the NSLDS. The administration of the Title IV programs depends heavily on the accuracy and timeliness of the enrollment information reported by institutions. Institutions must review, update, and certify student enrollment statuses, program information, and effective dates that appear on the Enrollment Reporting Roster file or on the Enrollment Maintenance page of the NSLDS Professional Access website in accordance with 34 CFR 690.83(b)(2) and 34 CFR 685.309. Condition: Eleven of the seventeen students selected for withdraw testing for the 2023-2024 academic year required an update to NSLDS enrollment status. The enrollment status for four students was not updated in a timely manner. Enrollment status updates failed to be reported within 60 days of the date of determination after the students were no longer enrolled on at least a half-time basis. Cause: The University does not have adequate procedures in place to ensure students’ enrollment statuses are updated in a timely manner. Effect: The University failed to update the NSLDS enrollment status in a timely manner. Repeat Finding: Yes. Recommendation: We recommend that the University put procedures in place to ensure that student enrollment statuses are updated in a timely manner following any change in full-time enrollment status. Management Response: The implementation of the new student information system (Ellucian Colleague) in August 2024 has addressed the NSLDS timely updating failing. The integration of Financial Aid and Enrollment data will allow the University to update the student enrollment status daily. University Financial Aid officers will also have the ability to manually adjust student enrollment information in NSLDS. In addition to the above, the University has contracted with the National Student Clearinghouse for enrollment reporting and NSLDS updates. Enrollment reports are submitted monthly to the National Student Clearinghouse and updates are submitted to the NSLDS within 10 days.