Changes in Financial Aid and Student Enrollment at Historically Black Colleges and Universities after the Tightening of PLUS Credit Standards: An Update for the 2013/14 School Year. REL 2017-254
Author: Johnson, Matthew
Date: 2017-02-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Student Financial Aid,Black Colleges,Student Loan Programs,Federal Programs,Reports,Undergraduate Students,Statistical Analysis,Income,Low Income Groups,Socioeconomic Status,Change,Institutional Characteristics,Work Study Programs,Enrollment Trends,African American Students,Paying for College,Eligibility

In 2011 the U.S. Department of Education tightened the credit standards for Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS). Concerned about the possible effects of this change on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic's Historically Black Colleges and Universities College Completion Research Alliance wanted to measure and understand changes in financial aid and student enrollment at HBCUs during the first full school year after the new credit standards were imposed (2012/13). The resulting report found declines in the number of PLUS recipients and in enrollment at HBCUs (Johnson, Bruch, &amp; Gill, 2015). This follow-up study looks at changes in financial aid and student enrollment after summer 2013, when the U.S. Department of Education changed the appeals process for families denied PLUS loans. The study team used institution-level data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2015) and the Title IV Program Volume Reports (U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Office, 2015) to analyze changes in financial aid and student enrollment between 2011/12 and 2013/14. The study examined the same analysis sample as in Johnson et al. (2015): four-year nonprofit institutions of higher education that had undergraduate students who were participating in the PLUS program in 2011/12 (public and private institutions of higher education were combined. This report presents descriptive statistics on changes in financial aid and student enrollment for three groups of institutions: HBCUs, non-HBCUs serving students from low-income families, and non-HBCUs serving students from higher income families. Non-HBCUs serving students from low-income families are institutions at which 64 percent or more of undergraduates receive Pell grants, a level comparable to that of HBCUs. Non-HBCUs serving students from higher income families are all other four-year institutions --87 percent of all four-year institutions in the sample. The study thus provides a broad picture of the changes in financial aid and student enrollment between 2011/12 and 2013/14. The report addresses two research questions: (1) How did PLUS participation and PLUS loan dollar amounts change at HBCUs and other institutions of higher education following the changes in the PLUS appeals process?; and (2) How did enrollment at HBCUs and other institutions of higher education change following the changes in the PLUS appeals process? The study found that PLUS participation at HBCUs increased in 2013/14, but the number of recipients remained substantially below the 2011/12 level. The increase in PLUS recipients at HBCUs in 2013/14 was significantly larger than the increase at non-HBCUs. Students at HBCUs borrowed $35.5 million more through PLUS loans and $66.9 million less through direct unsubsidized loans in 2013/14 than in 2012/13. However, total enrollment at HBCUs declined 3.5 percent during 2013/14, significantly more than at non-HBCUs and similar to the rate of decline in 2012/13. First-year enrollment at HBCUs also decreased during 2013/14, but at a slower rate than during 2012/13. Nationwide, enrollment of Black students at institutions of higher education declined during 2013/14. The following are appended: (1) Analysis sample; and (2) Pell grant program changes. [For the first study, &quot;Changes in Financial Aid and Student Enrollment at Historically Black Colleges and Universities after the Tightening of PLUS Credit Standards. REL 2015-082,&quot; see ED555652.]