The Higher Education Amendments of 1998 have
changed federal financial aid return policies for students who
withdraw completely from the university. The following policy will
be instituted for the 2000-2001 academic year.
The policy "focuses on the return of Title IV funds received for the time
period during which the student was enrolled." The policy refers to "earned" and "unearned" institutional
charges and Title IV funds, excluding Federal Work Study. Title IV funds
affected are Stafford loans, Pell grants, Perkins loans, and Federal Supplemental
grants.
State Grant funds, with the exception of the Talent Incentive Grant, are
not considered Title IV Funds. However, the return of State Grant funds will
be calculated using the same formula as is applied to federal funds.
The attribution priority will first return funds back to FFEL Student Loans,
Perkins Loans, Federal Grants and finally State Grants.
A percentage of institutional charges is to be returned depending upon the
percentage of the enrollment period completed. This pro rata return policy
will be in effect for all recipients of Title IV aid.
Refund Formula
To determine the percentage of unearned aid, the new policy uses the number
of DAYS enrolled in the award period, rather than weeks. The formula to determine
what amount of unearned Title IV aid to be returned is:
Percent of term NOT attended
X Amount of Title IV aid
= Unearned Title IV aid
-or-
Percent of Term NOT attended
X Institutional Charges
= Unearned Charges (or whichever is smallest)
To determine the percent of the term not completed, the number of days the
student did attend is divided by the number of days in the enrollment period
and this number is subtracted from 100%.
EXAMPLE:
Enrollment period is 110 days long . Student attended 22 days and withdrew
22/110 = 20% (time enrolled) 100% - 20% = 80% (% of term not completed) Title
IV aid disbursed to student was $1000.00 Student institutional costs were
$900.00
80% (.80) X Title IV aid disbursed = Amount of unearned aid (.8 X $1000)
= $800.
To determine the actual amount of aid that has to be returned, the amount
of unearned aid is compared to the amount of unearned costs, using the same
formula. Thus, while the unearned aid in this example was $800, the amount
of unearned cost is only $720 (.8 X $900).
The amount to be returned by the school is the lesser of these dollar amounts.
The student is then liable for the difference between the two amounts. ($800
- $720 = $80).
Withdrawal Date
The new regulations define withdrawal date as the date:
- The student begins the withdrawal process prescribed by
the school, OR...
- The student provided the school with official notification
of the intent to withdraw, OR...
- The midpoint of the payment period for which the student
received Title IV aid, for a student who does not begin
the process or provide notification, unless the institution
can document a later date.
Unofficial Withdrawal
Unofficial withdrawals are defined as students who cease attending classes,
but do not go through the official process of withdrawing from the university.
In order to identify students who fall into this category, the Registrar
has established the following procedure.
- The week before classes begin, rosters are sent to the
faculty.
- The week after the end of the "add" deadline updated rosters
are forwarded to the faculty.
- The faculty may take daily class attendance to validate
the roster.
- Faculty may contact the Registrar within the drop period
to indicate that a student is not attending class and should
be dropped.
- After the drop deadline updated class rosters are sent
to faculty.
- AT the end of the semester, a final grade roster is sent
to the faculty. Faculty will report either a WF or F grade
for students who have not been attending class.
Students who do not officially withdraw but stop attending classes,
and are given WF or F grades because of this, are assumed to
have withdrawn from the university at the 50 percent time of
enrollment (unless a later date can be documented) and will
owe unearned aid to the Title IV programs.
Process for Identifying Unofficial Withdrawals
Personnel of the financial aid office are responsible for ascertaining the
date a student withdraws from the university and determining the amount of
aid to be returned to the Title IV programs. In order to make this determination,
we will request information from the faculty regarding the last day students
took part in any "academically related activity." The following process will
be in place for the beginning of the 2000-2001 academic year.
- When the Registrar sends the original roster to faculty,
the letter (or separate attachment) will include an explanation
of why Financial Aid needs to be kept apprised of students
who stop attending class.
- The letter which accompanies the second, updated roster
will include a request that faculty contact the Financial
Aid office about students who are no longer attending classes
but who have not officially withdrawn. This request will
also ask them to determine when the student was last in
their class.
- The third class roster, sent after the end of the official "drop" period,
will include a form to be completed that will list the name
of students who did not withdraw, but are not attending
class, and the last day the faculty person remembers them
being in class.
- After the semester, a final list of students who received
WF or F grades will be compared to earlier information.
Faculty will be asked to date the last time these students
attended their class. They will be asked to forward the
data to the Financial Aid office.
- At the same time as the data requests are going to faculty
from the Registrar, Financial Aid will send reminders to
faculty, under the Provost's signature, via e mail.
Partial Credit Drops
Students who drop courses during the institution's refund period, but who
do not drop below half time, will receive any tuition refund which occurs
because of this drop in credits. If these students subsequently withdraw
from the university, they will be billed for the amount the institution had
to return to the Title 4 programs.
Bellin Students
The Bellin portion of financial aid payments is calculated by Bellin College
of Nursing's Financial Aid office. The UW-Green Bay portion is calculated
by our Bursar. Bellin sends the refund checks to the Bursar for disposition.
The Financial Aid Office at UW-Green Bay distributes the payment of unearned
aid to the appropriate funds and also calculates a student return. Students
are notified by UW-Green Bay of any payment due.
Adult Degree Students
Adult Degree students are awarded as one semester recipients even though
the length of their contract may be as much as twelve months. Student withdrawals
are treated as if the student was enrolled for one semester.
Return of State Grant Policy
Effective 1082,
as the result of an audit finding dated March 3, 2008 the return
of state aid has been modified.
After discussion with HEAB and LAB it is evident that there is
no clear and consistent interpretation of the current HEAB
Return of Aid Policy. A survey of the majority of Financial Aid
Offices in the UW System has further confirmed that the HEAB
Policy is being implemented in a variety of ways. The following
Policy has been developed using the most consistent methodology
pulled together from a number of UW schools:
Federal Methodology will be
used to determine the amount of funds to be returned to HEAB.
We will use the formula and attribution used by the federal
policy to determine the amount of state grant aid to return.
The funds will be attributed as follows:
Wisconsin Higher Education Grant
Tuition Grant
Wisconsin Indian Grant
Talent Incentive Grant
Lawton Grant
WIHA
Institutional scholarships
Private scholarships
State aid programs will have
priority for any credit balance remaining from an Institutional
Refund after the federal funds are satisfied.
If there is an Institutional refund issued after a student
withdraws, and there is a balance remaining after the federal
funds are subtracted, the state grant funds will be next in line
to receive a refund.
Example 1:
Student withdraws in the 3rd
week of classes and is due a 50% refund of tuition and a housing
refund. The total is $2500. The student received a Subsidized
Stafford Loan and Perkins Loan totaling $5000. The
Institutional unearned charges are $3000 and the amount of Title
4 aid to be returned is $2500. There will not be a credit
balance remaining after the federal funds are satisfied so there
will not be any funds returned to state grant programs.
Example 2:
Student withdraws in the 3rd
week of classes and is due a 50% refund of tuition and a housing
refund. The total is $2500. The student received a Stafford
Loan of $500 and a WHEG of $1200. The Institutional unearned
charges are $3000 and the amount of Title 4 aid to be returned
is $450. There will be a credit balance remaining of $2050
after the federal funds are satisfied so there will be a refund
to WHEG based on the calculated federal % of earned/unearned
funds.
|
