More than 6 million former college students cannot access their college transcripts because their former school is holding the documents as ransom as a debt collection tactic. Many of them will get a substantial reprieve next year thanks to regulations recently released by the Department of Education, which will ban colleges and universities from withholding students’ transcripts under most circumstances. The new regulations require colleges to release transcripts for semesters where a student received federal grants, loans, or work-study funds and paid off everything owed to the school.
With more than 40 million Americans having completed some college but not a degree, there are that many reasons to focus on re-enrollment over collections.
The Institute for Higher Education Policy has created a calculator that can help schools determine what kind of return on investment they might see from forgiveness and re-engagement programs. The benefits of these programs suggest that the new regulations may function less as a restriction on colleges’ collection efforts and more as an opportunity for them to innovate and grow their enrollment.
Read the full article at Forbes.
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