Headline News

The Education Department said Friday it will push back the reporting requirements for its new gainful employment and financial value transparency rule (FVT/GE) from July 31 to Oct. 1. Under the rule, colleges and universities will have to report new program-level information, including the total cost of attendance and the amount of private education loans disbursed to students. They’ve argued in letters to the department that it’s too much, too soon, largely because they need to focus on processing student aid applications and sending out award letters. Institutions have had less time this year than usual because of the fraught roll-out of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which has faced myriad delays and technical issues.

The rocky rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid has wreaked havoc on colleges’ admission timelines. They’ve done their best to adapt; when the department announced in January that it would not begin sending out processed student aid forms until mid-March, some institutions promptly pushed back their traditional May 1 commitment deadlines to give students and their financial aid offices more time.
Others held out hope that wouldn’t be necessary. But since the department began sending out Institutional Student Information Records, or ISIRs, last month, many more institutions have extended their deposit deadlines. 

As March ends, patience with the so-called Better FAFSA is evaporating rapidly. The U.S. Department of Education announced that it had processed more than 4.4 million FAFSAs as of March 25, and many colleges have been receiving big batches of processed applications, known as Institutional Student Information Records, or ISIRs, over the last two weeks. But several financial-aid experts say that some of the data colleges have been receiving is flawed. And a substantial number of colleges are doubting their ability to get aid offers out within the next few weeks.
 

Research universities and hospitals are pushing back against a federal agency’s proposal to boost oversight of investigations related to fraud and plagiarism, even as many face questions over the credibility of their scientists’ work. The Office of Research Integrity, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, oversees more than $40 billion in research funds and is calling for more transparency in research-misconduct investigations. The recommended changes come amid high-profile cases at schools including Stanford University, Harvard Medical School and the University of Rochester. 
 

Some parents of students at the University of California, Berkeley, hired private security workers to patrol near the campus, something the school says should be left up to the campus police. The group, called SafeBears, says it represents more than 1,300 parents of students at the university. It said it decided to hire the security guards after several crimes involving students last year, including a carjacking near a fraternity house and another one near campus.