U.S. to Identify Colleges Under Scrutiny

March 30, 2015
  • Industry News

The U.S. Department of Education plans to name the colleges whose access to federal money it has restricted because of concerns about the risk they pose to students and taxpayers. And most of the institutions placed on those financial sanctions in recent years have been for-profit colleges, newly disclosed federal records show.

Officials will release the list of colleges currently subject to extra scrutiny known as heightened cash monitoring at some point next week, according to Dorie Nolt, the department's press secretary.

The department on Friday sent a message to colleges on the cash monitoring list, notifying them of the forthcoming release.

"We have determined that the designation of institutions as being on heightened cash monitoring (I or II) is a matter of public interest," the department said in the message, which was obtained by Inside Higher Ed. "Therefore, we will be releasing a list of institutions that were under those designations as of March 1, 2015, early next week."

The decision to release the information comes after Inside Higher Ed reported on Thursday that the department was keeping secret the list of colleges that concerned regulators to the point they had curtailed access to federal funding at those institutions.

A department spokeswoman said last week that officials had been considering releasing the list.

Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/30/education-department-will-release-list-colleges-found-be-risky-students-taxpayers