The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) provides that, from the amount appropriated to carry out the PBI master’s program for any fiscal year, the first $2,500,000 (or any lesser amount appropriated) must be available for the purposes of making minimum grant awards to eligible institutions. If the amount appropriated is not sufficient to pay the minimum grant awards to all the eligible institutions, the amount of the minimum award to each designated eligible institution must be ratably reduced. For fiscal year 2009 and each of the five succeeding fiscal years, sufficient funds have been appropriated under section 897 of the amended Higher Education Act to make available at least the minimum award amount if all eligible institutions submit an approvable application for a grant. Note that under the provisions of the matching requirement, the Secretary is required to redistribute any funds an institution cannot match to other institutions meeting the matching requirement.

The HEOA requires that any amount in excess of $2,500,000 must be made available to each of the eligible institutions. The award amounts must be based on using a formula developed by the Secretary. The formula must use the following elements:

• the ability of the institution to match Federal funds with non-Federal funds;
• the number of students enrolled in the qualified master’s degree program at the eligible institution in the previous academic year;
• the average cost of attendance per student, for all full-time students enrolled in the qualified master’s degree program at such institution;
• the number of students in the previous year who received a degree in the qualified master’s degree program at such institution; and
• the contribution, on a percent basis, of the programs for which the institution is eligible to receive funds under this section to the total number of African-Americans receiving master’s degrees in the disciplines related to the programs for the previous year.

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