Changes to 2008-09 IPEDS due to passage of Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008

Changes to 2008-09 IPEDS Prompted by Higher Education Opportunity Act

As a result of the recent passage of Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (see here), NCES will make the following changes to the IPEDS data collection for 2008-09, to comply with the legislated mandate to display these items on College Navigator by August 2009. These changes are in addition to those already announced (see here for more information about the items previously announced), and they will be mandatory for 2008-09. Updated Institutional Characteristics (IC) forms, upload specifications, and instructions will be available on the IPEDS website and in the collection system within a week. The other survey materials for the affected Winter and Spring surveys will be available in the near future.

Note: These changes are pending approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), but institutions should anticipate that all of these changes will be implemented as described in this document, and begin to plan accordingly. Some of the changes are additional survey items; others are changes in instructions only.

Reminder: Due to the legislative mandate, all of these reporting changes are mandatory for 2008-09 IPEDS.

Institutional Characteristics Component (Fall data collection):

A.   A check-box item will be added, as follows:

Indicate which of the following alternative tuition plans are offered by your institution:

• Tuition guarantee
• Prepaid tuition plan
• Tuition payment plan
• Other (describe in Caveat box)
• None of the above

A caveat box will be provided for you to enter additional contextual information.

The following definitions will be added to the IPEDS Glossary:

• Tuition guarantee: A program where the institution guarantees, to entering first-time students, that tuition will not increase for the years they are enrolled. These guarantees are generally time-bound for four or five years.
• Prepaid tuition plan: A program that allows students or their families to purchase college tuition or tuition credits for future years, at current prices.
• Tuition Payment Plan: A program that allows tuition to be paid in installments spread out over an agreed upon period of time, sometimes without interest or finance charges.

B.   Institutional Identification - The following instructions will be added to the current item for reporting the institution's website address:

The webpage reported must contain the following information, or links to this information from that page:

• Student activities offered by the institution
• Services offered by the institution for individuals with disabilities
• Career and placement services offered by the institution to students during and after enrollment
• Policies of the institution related to transfer of credit from other institutions

Fall Enrollment Component (Winter or Spring data collection):

C.   The following set of data items will be added in order to collect a Fall 2008 student-to-faculty ratio for programs with undergraduates. A caveat box will be provided to allow for the provision of additional contextual information.

Please provide the following Fall 2008 data. These data will be used to calculate a student-to-faculty (i.e., student-to-instructional staff) ratio for display on College Navigator. (Note: Logic in this item is the same as item I-2 from the Common Data Set data collection.)

Students, Fall 2008
1	Total full-time students	Brought forward from Part A
2	Of these, the number enrolled in stand-alone graduate or professional programs such as medicine, law, veterinary, dentistry, social work, or public health, in which faculty teach virtually only graduate-level students	Report this number
3	Total full-time students not in stand-alone graduate or professional programs	Calculated: 1 - 2
4	Total part-time students	Brought forward from Part A
5	Of these, the number enrolled in stand-alone graduate or professional programs such as medicine, law, veterinary, dentistry, social work, or public health, in which faculty teach virtually only graduate-level students	Report this number
6	Total part-time students not in stand-alone graduate or professional programs	Calculated: 4 - 5
7	Full-time equivalent of part-time students not in stand-alone graduate or professional programs	Calculated: 6 * 1/3
8	Total full-time equivalent students not in stand-alone graduate or professional programs	Calculated: 3 + 7
Instructional staff, Fall 2008
9	Number of full-time instructional staff (as reported on EAP, full-time, non-medical, Line 1 Total + Line 2 Total)	Will be preloaded from EAP, if EAP is completed prior to EF
10	Of these, the number teaching in stand-alone graduate or professional programs such as medicine, law, veterinary, dentistry, social work, or public health, in which faculty teach virtually only graduate-level students	Report this number
11	Total full-time instructional staff not teaching in stand-alone graduate or professional programs	Calculated: 9 - 10
12	Number of part-time instructional staff (as reported on EAP, part-time, non-medical, Line 1 Total + Line 2 Total) [Note: this calculated Total does not include graduate assistants]	Will be preloaded from EAP, if EAP is completed prior to EF
13	Of these, the number teaching in stand-alone graduate or professional programs such as medicine, law, veterinary, dentistry, social work, or public health, in which faculty teach virtually only graduate-level students	Report this number
14	Total part-time instructional staff not teaching in stand-alone graduate or professional programs	Calculated: 12 - 13
15	Full-time equivalent of part-time instructional staff not teaching in stand-alone graduate or professional programs	Calculated: 14 * 1/3
16	Total full-time equivalent instructional staff not teaching in stand-alone graduate or professional programs	Calculated: 11 + 15
17	Student-to-faculty ratio	Calculated: 8 / 16 Displayed: xxx to 1

Student Financial Aid Component (Spring data collection):

D.   The following new items will be added to the Student Counts page. Undergraduate students are counted as of Fall 2007 for institutions reporting on a fall cohort, and for the 12-month period September 1, 2007 through August 31, 2008 for institutions reporting on a full-year cohort:

1	Total number of undergraduate students	Report this number (Currently collected, not new)
2	Total grant aid dollars awarded to all undergraduate students, from the federal government, a state or local government, the institution, and other sources known by the institution	Report this number
3	Total number of all students who received a Pell grant	Report this number

E.   The instructions and relevant definitions for the item that collects the "Number of students in the cohort who received any financial aid" (currently collected) will be clarified to include Federal Work Study, as shown:

Number of students in the cohort who received any financial aid during the year: Report the total number of students in your cohort who received any form of financial aid at any time during the year, including scholarships, grants, loans, and Federal Work Study.

F. The new items previously added to the Financial Aid page as optional for 2008-09 reporting will now be mandatory for 2008-09. These items are:

• Number of students and average amount of aid received from all grants
• Number of students and average amount of aid received from Pell grants
• Number of students and average amount of aid received from Other federal grants
• Number of students and average amount of aid received from Federal loans
• Number of students and average amount of aid received from Other loans

New short survey component (Spring collection)

G.   A new, short component will be added to the Spring data collection to capture data on students with disabilities and 100 and 200 percent gradation rates. The graduation rate items will not be collected for long programs. The items are:

1)   Please indicate the percent of all undergraduates enrolled in fall 2008 who are formally registered with the office of disability services (or the equivalent office) at your institution as students with disabilities:

• 3 percent or less
• If more than 3 percent: _____%

2a)   4-year institutions

For 4-year institutions, report on your 2000 cohort of bachelor's degree-seeking, full-time, first-time undergraduate students. Data for this cohort were originally reported by your institution in the 2006-07 data collection.
1	Adjusted bachelor's cohort	Preloaded
2	Number of students in the cohort who completed a bachelor's degree within 100% of normal time	Preloaded, completed in 4 or less years	System will calculate 100% graduation rate: 2 / 1
3	Number of students in the cohort who completed a bachelor's degree within 150% of normal time	Preloaded, completed in 6 years	System will calculate 150% graduation rate: 3 / 1
4	Number of students in the cohort who completed a bachelor's degree within 200% of normal time (8 yrs)	Report this number	System will calculate 200% graduation rate: 4 / 1

2b)   Less than 4-year institutions

For less than 4-year institutions, report on your 2004 cohort of full-time, first-time undergraduate students. Data for this cohort were originally reported by your institution in the 2007-08 data collection.
1	Adjusted cohort	Preload, view-only
2	Number of students in the cohort who completed a program within 100% of normal time	Report this number	System will calculate 100% graduation rate: 2 / 1
3	Number of students in the cohort who completed a program within 150% of normal time	Preloaded	System will calculate 150% graduation rate: 3 / 1
4	Number of students in the cohort who completed a program within 200% of normal time (4 yrs)	Report this number	System will calculate 200% graduation rate: 4 / 1