Changes to IPEDS forms 2008-09 through 2010-11

The following changes have been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to be effective beginning with the 2008-09 IPEDS data collection.  Unless otherwise indicated, following IPEDS policy, the changes or additions will be optional in the first year (2008-09) and mandatory in subsequent years; see specific items for exceptions. 

(1) Collect more detailed student financial aid data

(IPEDS component affected: Student Financial Aid)

These data will be displayed on College Navigator. The changes are mandatory in 2008-09.

		Data collected for full-time, first-time cohort
Current SFA Categories	Proposed SFA Categories	Number of recipients	Amount Received
Any aid	Any aid	X
	Any grant	X	X
	Any loan	X	X
Federal grants	Pell grants Other federal grants	X	X
State/local grants	State/local grants	X	X
Institutional grants	Institutional grants	X	X
Loans	Federal loans Other loans	X	X

(2)   Eliminate first-professional degree category

(IPEDS components affected:  Institutional Characteristics, Completions, 12-Month Enrollment, and Fall Enrollment)

The revised categories for degrees are outlined in the table below:

Current Award Categories (Baccalaureate and above)	New Award Categories (Baccalaureate and above)
Bachelor’s degree	Bachelor’s degree
Postbaccalaureate certificate	Postbaccalaureate certificate
Master’s degree	Master’s degree
Post-master’s certificate First-professional certificate (Post-degree)	Post-master’s certificate(Combines current post-master’s and first-professional certificates into one category.)
Doctor’s degree	Doctor’s degree – research/scholarship Doctor’s degree – professional practice Doctor’s degree - other
First-professional degree	Eliminated

The new degree categories are defined as follows:

Doctor’s degree - research/scholarship - A Ph.D. or other doctor's degree that requires advanced work beyond the master’s level, including the preparation and defense of a dissertation based on original research, or the planning and execution of an original project demonstrating substantial artistic or scholarly achievement. Some examples of this type of degree may include Ed.D., D.M.A., D.B.A., D.Sc., D.A., or D.M, and others, as designated by the awarding institution.

Doctor’s degree - professional practice - A doctor’s degree that is conferred upon completion of a program providing the knowledge and skills for the recognition, credential, or license required for professional practice. The degree is awarded after a period of study such that the total time to the degree, including both pre-professional and professional preparation, equals at least six full-time equivalent academic years. Some of these degrees were formerly classified as “first-professional” and may include: Chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.); Dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.); Law (L.L.B. or J.D.); Medicine (M.D.); Optometry (O.D.); Osteopathic Medicine (D.O); Pharmacy (Pharm.D.); Podiatry (D.P.M., Pod.D., D.P.); or, Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.), and others, as designated by the awarding institution.

Doctor’s degree - other - A doctor’s degree that does not meet the definition of a doctor’s degree - research/scholarship or a doctor’s degree - professional practice.

Master's degree - An award that requires the successful completion of a program of study of generally one or two full-time equivalent academic years of work beyond the bachelor's degree. Some of these degrees, such as those in Theology (M.Div., M.H.L./Rav) that were formerly classified as "first-professional", may require more than two full-time equivalent academic years of work.

Four components of the IPEDS collection will be affected by these changes: Institutional Characteristics, Completions, 12-Month Enrollment and the Fall Enrollment components.  NCES will implement the new definitions and categories for reporting Institutional Characteristics and Fall Enrollment information with the 2008-09 data collection year. As with all changes to IPEDS, the first collection year would be optional, and in the second year use of the new definitions will be mandatory. For Completions and 12-Month Enrollment data there will be 2 optional years (2008-09 data collection, reporting on awards granted between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, and 2009-10 data colledction year, reporting on awards granted between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009), becoming mandatory the following year.

(3)   Revise IPEDS Finance

(IPEDS components affected: Finance)

Note: Changes to the IPEDS Finance forms will be optional for two data collection years (2008-09 and 2009-10 and mandatory in subsequent years. However, institutions are encouraged to make the change to the new forms as soon as possible.

IPEDS Finance form for institutions that use FASB:

1. Add the following categories to Part A – Statement of Financial Position:
   1. Assets:
      1. Property, Plant, and Equipment
      2. Accumulated Depreciation
      3. Intangible assets, net of accumulated amortization
      4. Debt related to Property, Plant, and Equipment
2. Change the categories of net assets on Part A to the following:
   1. Unrestricted net assets
   2. Temporarily restricted net assets
   3. Permanently restricted net assets
3. 3)      Add the following categories to the Property, Plant and Equipment section (page 2) of Part A:
   1. Construction in progress
   2. Other
   3. Accumulated deprecation
4. Delete “Property obtained under capital leases (if not included in equipment)” and clarify in the instructions to include property obtained under capital leases in the categories that best describe the property, such as equipment, buildings, etc.
5. Add a caveats box on Part B.
6. Pre-populate net assets at the beginning of the year (line 5 of Part B) with previous year’s collection of net assets at end of year. However, the keyholder would have the ability to overwrite it.
7. Change the title of Part C from “Student Grants” to “Scholarships and Fellowships” in order to be consistent with the form for GASB institutions.
8. Change the format of Part D (Revenues) so that they are reported in 3 columns:
   1. Unrestricted
   2. Temporarily restricted
   3. Permanently restricted
   However, sales and services of auxiliary enterprises and hospitals will be reported only in unrestricted revenues.
9. Add a revenue line for “net assets released from restriction” that can allow both positive and negative amounts.
10. Separate “Private gifts, grants, and contracts” to allow gifts to be reported separately from private grants and contracts.
11. Add an instruction to the screen clarifying that the endowment assets of foundations and affiliated entities should be included in reporting of Part H – Details of Endowment Assets.

IPEDS Finance form for institutions that use GASB:

1. Change line 2 of Part A – Statement of Net Assets to read “Capital Assets, net of depreciation” and delete the line for accumulated depreciation.
2. Change the second page of Part A as follows:
   1. Change title to “Part A – Capital Assets”
   2. Report only ending balance (discontinue beginning balance, additions, and retirements)
   3. Combine “Equipment” and “art and library collections”
   4. Delete “Property obtained under capital leases (if not included in equipment)” and clarify instructions to include property obtained under capital leases in the categories that best describe the property, such as equipment, buildings, etc.
   5. Add a line for Other capital assets
   6. Add a line for “intangible assets, net of accumulated amortization” after the line for accumulated depreciation
3. On Part B, report local operating grants and contracts separately from private operating grants and contracts
4. Add a line for sales and services of educational activities
5. Change Part C (Expenses and Other Deductions) to resemble the form for FASB institutions, adding columns for operation and maintenance of plant and interest, and removing the functional classification of depreciation.  Operation and maintenance (O&M) of plant as a function will be used to allocate O&M to natural classes as it is in the form for FASB institutions. In addition, removing the functional classification of depreciation will require public institutions to allocate depreciation to appropriate functional categories – as independent institutions do.
6. Parts F and G, used for reporting component units using FASB and GASB standards, will be discontinued.
7. Add an instruction to the screen clarifying that the endowment assets of foundations and affiliated entities should be included in reporting of Part H – Details of Endowment Assets.

IPEDS Finance form for for-profit institutions:

No changes at this time

(4)   Change race/ethnicity

(IPEDS components affected:  Completions, 12-Month Enrollment, Fall Enrollment, Human Resources, and Graduation Rates)

On October 19, 2007, the U.S. Department of Education posted to the Federal Register the “Final Guidance on Maintaining, Collecting, and Reporting Racial and Ethnic Data to the U.S. Department of Education.”  (See the Federal Register, Volume 72, Number 202, pp. 59266-59279: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800
/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-20613.pdf).

The changes are necessary for the Department to implement the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) 1997 Standards for Maintaining, Collecting and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity.  IPEDS will adopt new aggregate categories for reporting R/E data in accordance with the final guidance. 

The guidance issued by the Department covers two separate issues: (1) the collection of R/E data by institutions and (2) the reporting of aggregate data to the Department.  For collecting R/E data, institutions must use a two-question format, and the Department encourages institutions to re-survey students and staff (the two-question format is as follows:  The first question is whether the respondent is Hispanic/Latino.  The second question is whether the respondent is from one or more races from the following list:  American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White).  For further details on the guidance for collecting data, please see the full Federal Register notice. 

For reporting aggregate data to the Department, the guidance identifies nine categories that will be used for IPEDS.   ED’s final guidance requires separating the category “Asian or Pacific Islander” into two separate categories, one for “Asian” and one for “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.”  Additionally, a category will be provided for reporting two or more races.  This results in seven categories for reporting aggregate racial/ethnic data: Hispanics of any race, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black not-Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White not-Hispanic, and two or more races.  ED’s final guidance also allows IPEDS to continue to use the two categories for reporting non-resident aliens and for reporting counts when race/ethnicity is unknown, for the reasons given below.

Non-resident aliens – IPEDS has traditionally collected data on non-resident aliens separately from U.S. citizens and resident aliens (no race data will be available for non-resident aliens); and

Race/ethnicity unknown – this category has been used in IPEDS since 1990 to provide a mechanism for reporting U.S. citizens and resident aliens who do not designate a racial/ethnic category. 

The current and new race/ethnicity categories for reporting data to IPEDS are outlined on the following page:

Current IPEDS Reporting Categories	New IPEDS Reporting Categories
Non-resident alien Race and ethnicity unknown Black, non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native Asian/Pacific Islander Hispanic, White, non-Hispanic	Nonresident aliens Race and ethnicity unknown Hispanics of any race For non-Hispanics only: American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Black or African American Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander White Two or more races

Educational institutions will be required to implement this guidance in order to report data for the 2010–2011 school year. Under the guidance, although not required to do so, educational institutions already collecting individual-level data in the manner specified by the notice are encouraged to immediately begin reporting aggregate data to the Department.  The new R/E reporting categories will be available for reporting in IPEDS in the 2008-09 collection year, which begins in Fall 2008. 

The IPEDS Technical Review Panel (TRP) discussed the implementation of changes to race/ethnicity reporting in IPEDS in November 2006 after the Department issued preliminary guidance on August 6, 2006. Based on suggestions from that meeting of the TRP, changes to reporting race/ethnicity in IPEDS will be fully implemented as outlined below.

• 2008-09 and 2009-10 Collection Years
  Optional years for all components: Reporting using new race/ethnic categories will be voluntary: All five relevant IPEDS components (Fall Enrollment, Human Resources, Completions, 12-Month Enrollment, and Graduation Rates) will allow a combination of current and new race/ethnic submissions, and therefore IPEDS components will have five current race/ethnic categories plus seven new race/ethnic categories plus two remaining categories (“Race and Ethnicity Unknown” and “Non-resident alien”) — a combined “5+7+2 format”.  Although the desire is that institutions will be able to collect and report the new race/ethnic data at this time, institutions will have the option to submit data using any of the following approaches:

1. Exclusively use seven new race/ethnic categories for everyone at the institution
2. Exclusively current five race/ethnic categories for everyone at the institution
3. Use “mixed reporting” - current categories for some individuals and new categories for others. The anticipation is that few institutions would select this option since it will be the most complex.

• 2010-11 Collection Year
  • Mandatory year for Fall Enrollment and Human Resources: Reporting using new race/ethnicity categories will be required.
  • Optional year for Completions, 12-Month Enrollment, and Graduation Rates: Reporting using the new categories will remain optional; data in these components will be collected using the 5+7+2 format.
• 2011-12 and Beyond Collection Years
  Mandatory years for all IPEDS components: Institutions will be required to report using only the new race/ethnicity categories.

In the years with components that have optional reporting, institutions can report one way for one IPEDS component and another for other IPEDS components. The expectation is that most will report using new race/ethnic categories for Completions, 12-Month Enrollment, and Graduation Rates the year after they report using new race/ethnic categories for Fall Enrollment and Human Resources.  The following table summarizes the proposed reporting timeline.

Proposed Timeline for Reporting Race/Ethnicity Data to IPEDS

IPEDS Collection Year	Fall Enrollment and Human Resources	Completions, 12-Month Enrollment,and Graduation Rates
2008-09 and 2009-10	mixed format (5+7+2)	mixed format (5+7+2)
2010-11	new format (7+2) only	mixed format (5+7+2)
2011-12 and beyond	new format (7+2) only	new format (7+2) only
“5” includes:  Black, non-Hispanic; American Indian/Alaska Native; Asian/Pacific Islander; Hispanic; White, non-Hispanic “7” includes:  Hispanics of any race; For non-Hispanics only: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White, Two or more races “2” includes: Race and Ethnicity Unknown and Nonresident Alien

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