On Friday, the Department of Education (ED) published in the Federal Register a Notice of Interpretation (NOI) on its enforcement authority for failure to adequately report under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act (HEA), requesting public comments by December 14, 2020. With this NOI, ED is now stating that institutional eligibility to participate in the Title IV student aid programs hinges upon compliance with the Section 117 foreign gifts reporting requirement.
HEA Section 117 falls under Title I of the HEA and deals with the disclosure of foreign gifts received by institutions of higher education. Foreign gift reporting has been required by the HEA for decades, and requires institutional gifts and contracts from foreign sources valued at more than $250,000 to be reported to ED, but guidance has been virtually nonexistent and enforcement has been historically lax.
The Trump administration has taken a particular interest in foreign gifts to colleges and universities and has launched several investigations into alleged misreporting. In June of this year, ED developed a portal to facilitate institutional compliance with the law, and last month released a report finding that 60 institutions that filed reports since June had not submitted any reports between 1986 (when the foreign gifts reporting requirement was adopted into the HEA) and June 2020.