Dear Partner:

The United States Department of Education (Department), Office of Federal Student Aid is pleased to announce four different Technical Assistance Sessions (TA Sessions) for schools located outside the U.S. to be held in the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico. The Department is bringing this effort to you in partnership with our lending community and educational hosts in each of the countries listed. I applaud this partnership and look forward to its successful outcome and the benefits that result for you and our American students. We piloted these sessions in Australia during the month of May and they were very well received. We have also provided these sessions to some of our Canadian partners at their annual conference, Canadian Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, CASFAA.

These TA Sessions are designed to help you learn more about the Department's laws and regulations governing schools that participate in our student aid programs, specifically, the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program. The TA Sessions will provide you with instruction and participative exercises on the Department's requirements and procedures for using a new publication - Student Financial Aid Handbook for Foreign Schools. In addition to mailing this publication to each school participating in the FFEL program during May 2002, the Department will distribute this publication at each of the five TA Sessions. These sessions also provide an opportunity for you to network and share your experiences with other participating universities; to meet and ask specific questions of members of the Department's Foreign Schools Team and the U.S. lending community; and receive hands on technical assistance.

The hotel and site information for the TA Sessions in United Kingdom and Puerto Rico are posted to the following website address:

http://ifap.ed.gov/IFAPWebApp/currentEAnnouncementsYearPag.jsp?p1=2002&p2=c

Once you get to this website, please look for "Foreign School Technical Assistance Sessions" to obtain the most recent information. We will post any updates to this information at this site. To assist you in planning for your attendance at one of the TA Sessions, the following provides the scheduled dates and locations:

The Session in Puerto Rico will also have an additional day (August 1, 2002) to receive information on default management, which is optional for you to attend. Please see the website

for further details. Also, future sites may be added for providing the TA Sessions. As they come available, we will provide that information to you.

I welcome your ideas and feedback and hope you enjoy your time at the TA Sessions. If you have any questions, please call us at (202) 377-3168.

Sincerely,

Geneva Coombs, Director
Case Management Teams-NE

Attachments/Enclosures:

Puerto Rico Technical Assistance Sessions in Microsoft Word format, pages 1

United Kingdom Technical Assistance Sessions in Microsoft Word format, pages 2

NASFAA Note: The link http://ifap.ed.gov/IFAPWebApp/currentEAnnouncementsYearPag.jsp?p1=2002&p2=c midway through this announcement was included to direct receipients of the paper version of the announcement to the on-line announcement above. Clicking on that link followed by "Foreign School Technical Assistance Sessions" simply will return you to this announcement.]

Posted June 24, 2002 on www.NASFAA.org, Web Site of the
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
Please submit Web Site questions or comments to ask@nasfaa.org