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Undergraduate enrollment at colleges and universities in the U.S. dropped slightly over the last five years, according to new data from the Department of Education’s (ED) National Center for Education Statistics. During that same time period, the percentage of revenue derived from student tuition and fees sharply declined at private nonprofit institutions, while holding fairly steady at public four-year and private for-profit schools.

Wondering how to treat students enrolled in audited courses for return of Title IV fund purposes? How about what to do if one parent files taxes as head of household and the other parent is undocumented? Take a look back at last month's most searched topics and the Q&As that ran in Today's News. If you have a question that's not on the list, you can find a credible and reliable answer on the AskRegs Knowledgebase site by browsing or searching the answers provided by our Training and Regulatory Assistance staff. You may also submit your own question using the Request Support feature.

On September 30 2015, NASFAA released an article that analyzed U.S. Department of Education (ED) program reviews from fiscal year (FY) 2014 and FY2015 to provide data on the liabilities and findings assigned to institutions. As a result, NASFAA members requested additional analysis on sector and regional breakdowns. It should be noted that this data includes both NASFAA member and non-member institutions.

The 2018 Leadership & Legislative Conference & Expo, to be held Feb. 26-28, 2018, in Washington, D.C., includes two days of sessions on various leadership and professional development topics, followed by an optional day on Capitol Hill where participants can advocate on behalf of their students. Attendees will have their choice of four leadership pathways, including the popular Fundamentals of Enrollment Management and Strategic Enrollment Management tracks. View the Agenda at-a-Glance for the tentative schedule and register today to take advantage of early-bird pricing.

This letter announces the availability of the recorded versions of two November 2015 webinars about the GE Completers List, including how to interpret the data and how to submit a challenge to the data.

Included are the presentation slides for the Interpreting the GE Completers List webinar, conducted on November 18, 2015, in PDF Format.

Included are the presentation slides for the How to Submit a Challenge to the GE Completers List webinar, conducted on November 19, 2015, in PDF Format.

Through the Pell for Students who are Incarcerated experiment (also known as Second Chance Pell) the Department of Education will provide selected eligible postsecondary institutions with a waiver to the current statutory ban on incarcerated individuals, who are otherwise eligible, from receiving Federal Pell Grant funds to attend eligible postsecondary programs.

"Stories of admissions advantages for the nation’s power elite are nothing new, and individual cases of apparent favoritism are often met with shrugs. In recent years, however, disclosures of preferential treatment for connected students at the flagship campuses of Illinois and Texas have struck particularly sour notes, feeding perceptions that the system remains rigged for a privileged few," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"An economic engine. A jumpstart for lower-income students. A partnership with businesses to groom a workforce. The idea of free community college has been touted as all these, by President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidates, and some Republicans," The Associated Press reports.

"Students who attend four-year institutions and are from high socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to rely on financial help from their parents than those who did not attend college or those who attended college and were from less affluent backgrounds, according to a new study published in the Journal Social Currents," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"The effect of the 2008 financial crisis and recession on the employment prospects of college graduates peaked in 2010, when the underemployment rate of college graduates -- a metric that includes both unemployed people and workers in part-time jobs, as well as those who have stopped actively seeking a job -- was more than 10 percent," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"Earlier this year, the University of Idaho's president, Chuck Staben, wondered what would happen if he applied to his own university. So he gave it a shot," Inside Higher Ed reports. "The web portal could be a lot better, he discovered. But that’s a relatively easy fix. More importantly, he came away thinking,why did I have to apply at all?"

"In the past seven years, Kentucky’s public universities have lost a whopping $173 million in state funding," the Lexington Herald Leader reports. "Those cuts started after the 2008 recession, when many states made similar funding decisions. But now Kentucky is one of the few that has not begun to reinvest in higher education."

"In researching my forthcoming book on why so many recent college graduates are struggling to launch into a career, one concern I heard repeatedly from employers is that too many of today’s college students lack basic work experience," Jeffrey Selingo writes for The Washington Post. "Though plenty of students completed internships while in college — a critical marker on any résumé — many of them never had other part-time jobs, working the register at McDonald’s or folding clothes at the Gap like previous generations did."

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