Massachusetts Bay Community College-Student Finanical Assistance Programs

This is a follow-up audit by the Massachusetts State Auditor of Massachusetts Bay Community College’s student financial assistance programs for July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.

“In accordance with Chapter 11, Section 12, of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a follow-up audit of the issues contained in our prior audit report (No. 2011-0196-7S) and in the Single Audit of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of MassBay’s Federal Student Financial Assistance (SFA) programs funded through the United States Department of Education (ED) for the period July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.”

The audit was done to see whether MassBay had fixed problems found in an earlier audit.

“The purpose of our audit was to determine if MassBay had taken corrective action and made improvements on the audit results identified in our prior audit report (2011-0196-7S).”

Student enrollment reporting affects loan status, deferments, grace periods, repayment schedules, and federal interest subsidy payments.

“A student’s enrollment status determines eligibility for in-college status, deferment, grace period, and repayment schedules, as well as the government’s payment of interest subsidies; therefore, enrollment reporting is critical for effective administration of Title IV programs.”

If you are a student or taxpayer, the report matters because inaccurate loan-status reporting and unresolved checks can affect student aid administration and the handling of public education funds.

“By not resolving these outstanding checks in a timely manner, MassBay was not upholding its fiscal responsibility to its students and its SFA programs under Title IV.”

MassBay made only limited progress: 12 of 30 sampled student loan recipients still had enrollment changes that were missing, wrong, or late, and the college had more outstanding checks than before.

“In our sample of 30 students, we found that the changes in enrollment status for 12 students were not reported, incorrectly reported, or reported late to NSLDS.”

The auditor says MassBay should improve its process, check its own records against NSLDS, and keep working through old checks so financial aid money goes back where it belongs.

“MassBay should develop a reconciliation process between its own records and NSLDS’s to ensure that all student enrollment information is being accurately transferred to NSLDS in a timely manner.”

This was not a brand-new problem; the audit says earlier findings remained unresolved, and the college still needed stronger follow-through.

“Our follow-up audit disclosed that Massachusetts Bay Community College (MassBay) has not taken sufficient corrective action to address prior audit issues regarding (a) accurately reporting student status changes on a timely basis and (b) the determination of the status of outstanding checks, as discussed below.”

NSLDS means the National Student Loan Data System, NSC means the National Student Clearinghouse, and SFA means Student Financial Assistance. In plain terms, MassBay used a third party to send student loan enrollment updates, but the auditor said MassBay still had to make sure the final federal system got correct and timely information.

“Because MassBay depends on the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), a contracted third party, to report these changes to NSLDS, it does not verify with NSLDS that the correct enrollment status has been reported.”