Online and For-Profit Colleges Face Beefed-Up Aid Audits From Education Dept.

By Goldie Blumenstyk

The U.S. Department of Education plans to increase its scrutiny of how colleges award federal grants and loans to their students, and a department official told The Chronicle it will pay particular attention to for-profit colleges owned by publicly traded companies and on all institutions with large distance-education programs.

The department, which has been beefing up the compliance-office staffing in its Office of Federal Student Aid, expects to conduct about 300 program reviews of student-aid operations next year, in contrast to about 200 this year. Program reviews are audit-like examinations of student-aid operations designed to ensure that students receive only the grants and loans they are entitled to and that institutions make refunds in accordance with the law in cases where students withdraw.

Continued at: http://chronicle.com/article/OnlineForProfitColleges/125705/?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en