AAU, ACE, and 35 other organizations in the higher education community sent a letter to the Department of Education on topics that the department should consider as part of its stated intention to pursue negotiated rulemaking on programs under the Higher Education Act. The letter emphasized that any effort to revise regulations should promote opportunity for all students and enhance institutional efforts and that regulations should produce processes that are data-driven, transparent, and targeted to the issues they are meant to address. The letter also urged the department to employ risk-based oversight and enforcement.
Topics proposed in the letter include change of ownership and change in control of institutions of higher education; standards of administrative capability; borrower defense to repayment; the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program; gainful employment; Pell Grant eligibility for prison education programs; TRIO programs; Section 117; and more.