This Week In IPEDS (TWII)

Revisions to GASB Form Available for Comment

The Department of Education recently posted a Federal Register notice for public comment for the emergency review of the IPEDS collection (https://federalregister.gov/a/2015-26598). NCES is seeking authorization to revise the 2015-16 IPEDS Public GASB Finance Form. In response to the implementation of GASB Statement 68 “Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pensions – an Amendment to GASB Statement No. 27,” effective for fiscal year 2015, public institutions using GASB standards will be required to change how they recognize unfunded pension liabilities, deferred resources, and expenses in their financial statements, resulting in significant shifts in the data reported to IPEDS. NCES is proposing to add a screening question and three fields to the 2015-16 Public GASB Finance Forms to address these shifts. The screening question asks institutions, “Did you recognize additional expense, liability, and/or deferral related to the implementation of GASB Statement 68 for Fiscal Year 2015?” The three additional fields collect: Additional pension expense, Additional pension liability, and Additional deferred resources. As a result of these changes, NCES is opening another 30-day public comment period.

Trend Generator Update

New questions are now available in the IPEDS Trend Generator (https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/trendgenerator/). Additions include retention rates for full- and part-time students; several questions on financial aid such as undergraduate students receiving Pell grants and Federal student loans; more detail on sources of aid for full-time, first-time undergraduate students; and trends on Institutional expenses by expense functional category. Additionally, tables and trends on fall enrollment, completions and graduation rates can now be compiled by race/ethnicity.

Updated Cohort Default Rates

The “Three year Official Cohort Default Rates” for FY2012 were released by the Department of Education on September 28, 2015 at http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/defaultmanagement/cdr.html. The default rates are included in College Navigator (https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator).

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