Office of Postsecondary Education - U.S. Department of Education

66970 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 209 / Friday, October 29, 2010 / Rules and Regulationsevidence that the student transferred to ahigher credentialed program at anotherinstitution. To ensure the information isaccessible, § 668.6(b) has been revised torequire an institution to provide a prominentand direct link to information about aprogram on the home page of its Web site andon other pages where general, academic, oradmissions information is provided about theprogram. The information must also beprovided in promotional materials conveyedto prospective students. The informationmust be provided in a simple and meaningfulmanner. The information to be disclosedincludes the on-time graduation rate, thetotal amount of tuition and fees theinstitution charges a student for completingthe program within normal time, the typicalcosts for books and supplies, unless includedas part of tuition and fees, and the amountof room and board, if applicable. Theinstitution may include information on othercosts, such as transportation and livingexpenses, but must provide a Web link oraccess to the program cost information itmakes available under § 668.43(a). TheDepartment intends to develop in the futurea disclosure form and will be seeking publiccomment about the design of the formthrough the information collection processunder the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995(PRA). Until a form is developed andapproved under the PRA process, institutionsmust comply with the disclosurerequirements independently.Another area of disclosure is providingstudents information about potentialoccupations by linking to O*Net.Commenters expressed concern that thiswould require an unwieldy amount of datafor some degree programs and the resultinginformation overload would not serve toaccurately inform students. Section 668.6(b)has been revised so that if the number ofoccupations related to the program, asidentified by entering the program’s full sixdigit CIP code on the O*NET crosswalk athttp://online.onetcenter.org/crosswalk/ ismore than ten, an institution is allowed toprovide prospective students with Web linksto a representative sample of the SOCs forwhich its graduates typically findemployment within a few years aftercompleting the program.In response to comments that the proposedplacement rate was administratively complexand overly burdensome, we decided to directthe National Center for Education Statistics(NCES) to develop a placement ratemethodology and the processes necessary fordetermining and documenting studentemployment and reporting placement data tothe Department using IPEDS no later thanJuly 1, 2012. The collaborative process usedby NCES and the opportunity for publiccomment on the proposed measure willallow for a considered review anddevelopment of a meaningful placement rate.Section 668.6(b) has been revised to specifythat an institution must disclose for eachprogram the placement rate calculated undera methodology developed by its accreditingagency, State, or NCES. The institutionwould have to disclose the accreditingagency or State-required placement ratebeginning on July 1, 2011 and to identify theaccrediting agency or State under whoserequirements the rate was calculated. TheNCES-developed rate would have to bedisclosed when the rates become available.To remove uncertainty and to ensure aconsistent calculation, we have revised§ 668.6(b) to specify how an institutioncalculates an on-time completion rate for itsprograms. This is a measure designed toprovide students meaningful informationabout the extent to which former studentscompleted the program within the publishedlength. As described elsewhere in thispreamble, the on-time completion rate willbe calculated by: (1) Determining the numberof students who completed the programduring the most recently completed calendaryear; (2) determining the number of studentsin step (1) who completed the programwithin normal time, regardless of whetherthe students transferred into the program orchanged programs at the institution; and (3)dividing the number of students whocompleted in normal time in step (2) by thetotal number of completers in step (1) andmultiplying by 100.We also received comments about the useof median loan debt, the definition of privateloans, and the treatment of debt incurred atprior programs or institutions. The examplesthat we provide earlier in this preambleclarify the treatment of loan debt from priorprograms and institutions. In general, medianloan debt for a program at an institution doesnot include debt incurred by students inattending a prior institution, unless the priorand current institutions are under commonownership or control or are otherwise relatedentities. In cases where a student changesprograms while attending an institution ormatriculates to a higher credentialed programat the institutions, the Department willassociate the total amount of debt incurred bythe student to the program the studentcompleted. In order to perform thecalculation of the median loan debt,§ 668.6(a) has been revised to provide that aninstitution must provide information aboutwhether a student matriculated to a highercredentialed program at the same institution,or, if it has evidence, that a studenttransferred to a higher credentialed programat another institution.The provisions related to Stateauthorization generated comments fromthose who supported the regulations as aneffort to address fraud and abuse in Federalprograms through State oversight and fromothers who believed the regulations infringedon States’ authority and upset the balance ofthe ‘‘Triad’’ of oversight by States, accreditingagencies, and the Federal Government. Weclarified that the final regulations do notmandate that a State create any licensingagency for purposes of Federal programeligibility as an institution may be legallyauthorized by the State based on methodssuch as State charters, State laws, Stateconstitutional provisions, or articles ofincorporation that authorize an entity to offereducational programs beyond secondaryeducation in the State.We revised § 600.9 to clarify that aninstitution’s legal authority to offerpostsecondary education in a State must beby name and, thus, it must include the nameof the institution being authorized. We haveremoved proposed § 600.9(b)(2) regardingadverse actions. In response to concernsabout the effect on distance education andreciprocity arrangements, we clarified that aninstitution must meet any State requirementsfor it to be legally offering distance orcorrespondence education in that State andmust be able to document to the Secretary theState’s approval upon request. Thus, a publicinstitution is considered to comply with§ 600.9 to the extent it is operating in itshome State, and, if operating in anotherState, it would be expected to comply withthe requirements, if any, the other Stateconsiders applicable or with any reciprocalagreement that may be applicable. In makingthese clarifications, we are not preemptingany State laws, regulations, or otherrequirements regarding reciprocalagreements, distance education, orcorrespondence study.We also have revised the Stateauthorization provisions in § 600.9 todistinguish between a legal entity that isestablished as an educational institution andone established as a business or nonprofitentity. An institution authorized as aneducational institution may be exempted byname from any State approval or licensurerequirements based on the institution’saccreditation by an accrediting agencyrecognized by the Secretary or based on theinstitution being in operation for at least 20years. An institution established as abusiness or nonprofit charitable organizationand not specifically as an educationalinstitution may not be exempted from theState’s approval or licensure requirementsbased on accreditation, years in operation, orother comparable exemption. Chart Aillustrates the basic principles of § 600.9 ofthese final regulations, with additionalexamples discussed in the preamble to theseregulations.WReier-Aviles on DSKGBLS3C1PROD with RULES2VerDate Mar2010 14:10 Oct 28, 2010 Jkt 223001 PO 00000 Frm 00140 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\29OCR2.SGM 29OCR2