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 2008-2009 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 a modified federal policy adopted by the Highter Education Aids Board (HEAB).
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 a WF
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 a WF grade 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
The end of the second week of classes has been designated as the census date as well as the end of the add/drop period. Credit changes during this period will impact aid awards, and adjustments to aid will be completed after the second week of classes. Aid adjustments will also occur upon review of credit changes that occur between the time aid disburses and the first day of classes.
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.
Return of State Grant Policy
Effective Spring 2008,
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
Advanced Opportunity Grant
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. The amount of the refund will correspond to the federal formula of earned and unearned funds.
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