This Electronic Announcement reminds institutions of the upcoming requirement that they must submit Gainful Employment (GE) program data to NSLDS for the 2016-2017 award year by October 1, 2017. Please note that this year October 1 falls on a Sunday, therefore institutions may wish to submit their GE reporting ahead of the deadline. Institutions may submit the information using the GE online reporting option under the Enrollment tab of the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) Professional Access Web site, the GE batch file submission option through the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG), or by using the NSLDS Gainful Employment Spreadsheet Submittal Format online upload option. More information about these GE reporting options can be found in the NSLDS Gainful Employment User Guide, available in the NSLDS User Documentation section of the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) website or under the “Resources” section of the IFAP Gainful Employment Information page. These GE reporting options, as well as the data elements and definitions, have not changed from those used for the 2015-2016 GE reporting that was due by October 1, 2016.

We remind institutions that GE reporting must only include students who received Title IV aid to attend the GE program being reported.

GE Reporting Tips:

Based on our review of data from institutions during the previous GE reporting cycles, there are a few areas that institutions should pay careful attention to when reporting and correcting GE data.

Correct Classification of Student Debt: Title IV loan debt, including Perkins loan debt, is not private loan debt and is not institutional debt. When calculating GE rates, the Department will include Title IV debt obtained from NSLDS. If an institution reports Title IV loan debt as part of private or institutional debt, the Title IV loan debt will be double-counted.

Data Accuracy: Institutions must carefully review their GE data during the reporting process to ensure that it is correct. Note that institutions are not limited to award year 2016-2017 for correcting errors – any errors in GE data previously reported must be corrected promptly after the errors are discovered.