Colleges cheating on disclosing costs?

Colleges cheating on disclosing costs???

A GAO report recently recommended tougher control of how universities and colleges provide information about their financial packages and costs to students and families.??As reported in the Wall Street Journal ( Melissa Korn , “Watchdog Finds Colleges’ Aid Letters Omit Full Costs” Wall St. J. A2 (Dec. 6, 2022), it appears that schools of higher ed are not playing fair with those they admit.??

Remarkably, the study found that 91% of schools do not disclose their net price, or what the student will actually have to pay when all costs are considered.??The Education Department and a federal commission had identified 10 best practices for disclosing financial information.??The GAO report disclosed that most schools only follow 5 or fewer of the 10, and not even one school followed all 10.??One school even came in at zero.??

Of particular note, some schools intentionally withheld information – fearing that complete disclosure would deter potential students.??GAO stated that low-income students “may suffer severe consequences” if they are not provided with full, clear information.??

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx stated that she was “disgusted at the endemic level of deception currently happening at colleges and universities” and she joined with Congresswoman Lisa McClain in introducing legislation in Congress to require colleges to improve this record.??

To my friends who observe and comment on the news of “corporate” crime and violations, remember that higher ed in the US is big business and it is worth monitoring the conduct of these businesses in the context of compliance and ethics.??I continue to note that in the various academic articles and analyses I read relating to compliance and ethics, these scholars never use or discuss examples from their own higher ed industry; it is all about those “bad” corporations, but they never look inside their own houses.????

#compliance #complianceandethics #universities