The U.S. Department of Education announced that it will require college programs to prove that graduates earn more than those with a high school diploma in order for students to qualify for the federal Direct Loan Program.<\/p>\n
Under the new Student Tuition and Transparency System, or STATS, if a program fails to demonstrate adequate earnings then the Department of Education may strip enrolled students of eligibility for Title IV of the Higher Education Act, including Pell Grant eligibility.<\/p>\n
The Pell Grant is a federally funded financial aid program supporting students with financial need.<\/p>\n
Under the policy, institutions will be required to notify current and prospective students if there is a possibility they could lose any or all Title IV funding. Universities are subject to lose all Title IV aid entirely if there is proof that more than half of Title IV recipients \u201care enrolled in low-earning outcomes programs\u201d or that more than half of the institution\u2019s total Title IV funds are dispersed to students in low-earning programs.<\/p>\n
STATS is set to go into full effect July 1, 2027.<\/p>\n
The first \u201cearnings test\u201d facilitated by the department will occur early 2027. If programs do not meet earning standards during this test and the following 2028 test, they could be designated \u201clow earning programs\u201d by the 2028-29 award period for federal aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe University of California is concerned about any regulations limiting what programs students can study and what majors they can select while receiving federal financial aid,\u201d said UC Office of the President spokesperson Omar Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
During the September UC Board of Regents meeting, UC Chief Financial Officer Nathan Brostrom and Vice President for Institutional Research & Academic Planning Pamela Brown unveiled new data that tracks UC undergraduate alumni earning outcomes.<\/p>\n
Of all UC alumni employed in California, the data shows majors in psychology, education, arts and English literature make on average less than $50,000 annually within two years of graduation.<\/p>\n
Brostrom mentioned during the regents meeting that campuses with higher percentages of middle-class students have higher percentages of debt compared to campuses with higher percentages of Pell Grant recipients.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez said in his email that UC students currently receive $1.88 billion annually in federal financial aid and that about two-thirds of students graduate without loans.<\/p>\n
\u201cUC is currently assessing how many students could be impacted. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and explore additional ways to support students whose ability to pursue higher education may be affected,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Department of Education announced that it will require college programs to prove that graduates earn more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7,19442,188872,170168,157737,143,145,144,76657,188877,188875,9756,188873,188874,5247,41249,2012,188876],"class_list":["post-481788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-california","tag-department-of-education","tag-federal-direct","tag-higher-education-act","tag-nathan-brostrom","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-omar-rodriguez","tag-pamela-brown","tag-pell-grants","tag-september","tag-student-tuition-and-transparency-system","tag-title-iv","tag-uc","tag-uc-board-of-regents","tag-university-of-california","tag-vice-president-for-institutional-research-academic-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}