Archived Changes

Changes to IPEDS Data Collections, 2013-14

• Changes to the IPEDS data collection that have been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for implementation in 2013-14. There are two changes, and they are both timing changes, not changes in data collected.

Move Graduation Rates and 200% Graduation Rates Components to the Winter Collection

• The Graduation Rates (GR) and 200% Graduation Rates (GR200) components will move from the Spring data collection to the Winter collection starting in 2013-14.
• There will be no change to the data items collected, only to the collection period in which the data are submitted.

• GR and GR200 data will be due in February, rather than April.
• 3 components will be due in Winter 2013-14 and 3 components will be due in Spring 2014 (instead of 1 in Winter and 5 in Spring).
  • The reporting schedule for institutions will be balanced out.
  • Help Desk activities (follow-up, quality control editing, and migration) will be spread more evenly throughout the year.

• NCES is under increased pressure from legislators, policy makers, and data users to provide graduation rates data earlier. While legislation and regulation dictate the method and timetable for calculating these rates, there is some latitude for movement within the data collection calendar to speed up the process.
• The IPEDS Technical Review Panel (TRP) meeting in November 2007 made the suggestion to move the collection of Graduation Rates data to a “late Winter” data collection, which they proposed would be open from approximately November 1 to February 1. The TRP felt that institutions would be able to meet the new due date since it falls five months after the latest status date for determining graduation rates data (August 31 of the previous year). While NCES did not implement a late Winter data collection, the dates of the Winter data collection were extended in 2010-11 so that it now runs to early February, approximating the suggested late Winter due date.

Move the Revision of Prior Year Cost of Attendance Data to the Student Financial Aid Component

• Prior year cost of attendance data will now be revised on the current year Student Financial Aid (SFA) component in the Winter collection, rather than in the Prior Year Revision System on the Institutional Characteristics (IC) component in the Fall collection.
• For the 2013-14 data collection, the prior year cost of attendance data affected will be for 2012-13, 2011-12, and 2010-11.
• There will be no change to the data elements that are available to be revised, only to the place where they can be revised.

• A new screen will be added to the SFA component:

• The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008 requires that NCES calculate an average institutional net price, and display it on College Navigator and on the College Affordability and Transparency website. The inputs to this calculation are cost of attendance, collected on the IC component in the Fall, and financial aid, collected on the SFA component in the Winter. In order to improve the calculation of this measure, keyholders will now be able to revise the cost of attendance data at the same time they submit the financial aid data on the SFA component. Keyholders will be able to verify the 3 prior years? of cost data that will be used in the calculation of their institution’s average net price at the same time that they can see the calculation.