HEA 101 Quick Guide: Post-Graduate Information

(HEA Title IV , Section 485(a)(1) (R) & (S)) Additional Resources Statutory Language

Quick Take

Each institution must disclose information about the employment of, and participation in graduate and professional education by its graduates. The information is to be gathered from sources such as alumni surveys, student satisfaction surveys, the National Survey of Student Engagement, the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, state data systems, or other relevant sources.

An institution does not have to collect complete and precise information from its graduates in order to comply with this disclosure requirement, but it must provide some information on the jobs and further education pursued by its graduates.

When Will This Take Effect?

This provision went into effect when the bill was signed into law on August 14, 2008. It is subject to negotiated rulemaking, so specific regulatory guidance may be provided in the future. In the meantime, institutions must make a “good faith” effort to comply with the law.

Who On Campus May Need to Be Involved?

Alumni office; career services; institutional research; any other offices involved with graduate surveys or outcomes measures

Additional Resources

Related provision:

To get a sense of the type of information that Congress would ideally like to have, see the “Employment of Postsecondary Education Graduates” (Section 1102 of the HEOA) provisions.  They call for a General Accountability Office study of the feasibility of collecting information about employment within 6 months of graduation, relatedness of the job to the course of study, starting salary, and student satisfaction with job preparation.  The study is also to review the evaluation systems used by “other industries,” the best means to collect information from current graduates and the best means to display it.

Click here for Section 1102 statutory language.

Statutory Language