Finding Text
Information on the Federal Program - Student Financial Assistance Cluster, Assistance Listing Number 84.268 Federal Direct Student Loans, Assistance Listing Number 84.063 Federal Pell Grant Program, U.S. Department of Education Program Year 2022-2023.
Criteria or Specific Requirement – Special Tests and Provisions – Enrollment Reporting.
Condition – Eleven student enrollment status changes were not communicated to the National Student Loan Data System (“NSLDS”) on a timely basis or were reported incorrectly.
Questioned costs – None
Context – Out of a population of 785 student enrollment status changes requiring notification transmitted to NSLDS, a sample of 49 student enrollment status changes was selected for testing. Six of the status changes had deviations from reporting requirements. Our sample was not and was not intended to be statistically valid.
Effect – The NSLDS was not properly notified of student enrollment status changes of Direct Student Loan and Pell recipients in accordance with federal regulations.
Cause – Majority of the exceptions identified in the sample population were related to changes within the system not being electronically identified and reported externally to NSLDS.
Identification as a repeat finding – 2022-001, 2021-001, 2020-002, and 2019-001
Recommendation – The University should determine a more timely way to identify and communicate across the necessary departments when a student's enrollment status changes. Possible outside IT assistance may be needed to properly capture student enrollment activity within the system so it gets reported with in the electronic batches going to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse. We also recommend performing self-audits on a monthly or quarterly basis to verify procedures in place are effective.