United States General Accounting Office GAO Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities, House of Representatives January 1997 STUDENT LOANS Default Rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities GAO/HEHS-97-33 United States GAO General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Health, Education, and Human Services Division B-275208 January 21, 1997 The Honorable William L. Clay Ranking Minority Member Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities House of Representatives Dear Mr. Clay: Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have a long history of providing higher education to black students. The first HBCUs were established before the Civil War. After the war, the establishment of HBCUs gradually continued; as of fall 1994, 104 HBCUs serve about 281,000 students (see app. I). In 1965, the Congress stressed the importance of HBCUs, stating that “historically Black colleges and universities have contributed significantly to the effort to attain equal opportunity through postsecondary education for Black, low-income, and educationally disadvantaged Americans.” Our earlier reports pointed out that HBCUs participating in federal student loan programs generally experienced high default rates, with nearly one-third of HBCUs exceeding the statutory default threshold.1 HBCUs have been legislatively exempt from the statutory threshold requirement that schools with high default rates lose their eligibility to participate in federal student loan programs. But the exemption is to expire on July 1, 1998. When the exemption expires, many HBCUs with high default rates for student loans could lose their eligibility to participate in federal student loan programs. Such a loss could make it difficult for students to pay the cost of attending HBCUs. In this report, we respond to your request to update the information we previously reported on default rates at HBCUs. As agreed with your office, our objectives were to • determine the dollar amount of major federal student loans made to students at HBCUs and non-HBCUs; • identify the most current default rates and the dollar amounts of the defaults—aggregated by kind of school, such as 2-year or 4-year, public or 1 Student Loans: Default Rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (GAO/HRD-93-117FS, Aug. 19, 1993) and Default Rates at HBCUs (GAO/HEHS-94-97R, Mar. 9, 1994). Page 1 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 private—for student borrowers previously enrolled at HBCUs and non-HBCUs; and • estimate the number of HBCUs that could lose their eligibility, in fiscal year 1998, for federal student loan programs because of default rates exceeding the statutory threshold. Our universe of schools comprises 98 HBCUs2 and 3,209 non-HBCUs, including those that (1) are 2-year or 4-year and public or private schools and (2) the Department of Education has reported as current participants in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) and William D. Ford Direct Loan (FDL) programs.3 The 98 HBCUs represent about 3 percent of our universe of 2-year or 4-year public or private schools in the FFEL and FDL programs. We relied on Department information for (1) overall student loan dollars through fiscal year 1995, (2) the most current default rates for student loans for HBCU and non-HBCU schools during fiscal years 1991-93, and (3) actual dollars defaulted in fiscal year 1992. Although we did not verify the accuracy of data obtained from the Department, its databases are readily available and can be used by the education community for similar analyses. We conducted our review between May and October 1996 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Of the $26.2 billion in federal student loans made in fiscal year 1995, Results in Brief $731 million (or about 3 percent) in loans were made to students attending HBCUs. This percentage has remained steady during fiscal years 1991-95. For fiscal year 1993, the average loan default rate for HBCUs was 21.1 percent, but the average for non-HBCUs was 7.2 percent. These percentages remained relatively the same throughout fiscal years 1991-93. In fiscal year 1992, the most current year that the dollars in defaulted student loans could be measured, HBCUs averaged defaults of $464,209 and non-HBCUs averaged $119,307. This difference was primarily because the aggregate default rate for HBCUs was about three times as great as the rate for non-HBCUs. Whether compared by kind of school or student enrollment, HBCUs had higher default rates and larger dollar amounts of loans in default per school than non-HBCUs. 2 The Department currently recognizes 104 HBCUs, but we excluded 6 from our review because default rates were not available for them. In addition, since all HBCUs are 2-year or 4-year public or private schools, we excluded from our universe of non-HBCUs all schools in the Department’s database that are less than 2-year or proprietary. But data on proprietary schools are included in table 1 and app. IV to provide a broader perspective. 3 These schools were reported by the Department of Education’s Default Management Section in the fiscal year 1993 official statistics for the cohort default rate. Page 2 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 If the default rates for HBCUs remain the same for fiscal years 1994-96 as they were for fiscal years 1991-93, 22 HBCUs could lose their eligibility for federal student loan programs in fiscal year 1998, after their exemption from default rate requirements expires. Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, authorized the Background Department of Education to bar postsecondary schools with high “cohort default rates” from continuing to participate in federal student loan programs.4 The cohort default rate is a percentage that results from two parts: (1) a school’s student loan borrowers who are supposed to repay the loan in a fiscal year, divided by (2) those borrowers who default by the end of the following fiscal year.5 For example, if 100 students from a school were scheduled to begin repaying their loans in fiscal year 1993 and 25 defaulted on their loans by the end of fiscal year 1994, the school’s fiscal year 1993 cohort default rate would be 25 percent. Each year, the Department assesses a school’s eligibility on the basis of its three most recent available cohort default rates. In fiscal year 1996, eligibility was based on default rates for fiscal years 1991, 1992, and 1993. A school remains eligible if its cohort default rate is below the statutory threshold, currently 25 percent, in at least 1 of the latest 3 consecutive fiscal years. A school becomes ineligible if its default rate equals or exceeds the default threshold in all 3 fiscal years. Students get federal loans from two major programs: the FFEL and FDL programs, each providing both subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Loans made under FFEL are provided by private lenders and are ultimately guaranteed against default by the federal government. Loans made under FDL are provided through schools, and the Department services and collects loans through contractors. FDL was originally authorized by the Higher Education Amendments of 1992 (P.L. 102-325). Since the first loans under FDL were made in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 1994, the fiscal year 1995 cohort will be the first cohort that could be affected by FDL defaults. 4 Student borrowers are in default if they fail to make any scheduled payments on their loans for (1) 180 days, if repayment is made monthly, and (2) 240 days, if repayment is made less frequently. 5 If less than 30 student borrowers at a school repay their loans in a given year, the cohort default rate is the percentage of student borrowers who repaid their loans in the most recent 3 years, but who defaulted by the end of the fiscal year after repayment. Page 3 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 In addition to the cohort default rate threshold specified in the Higher Education Act, the Department has established—through regulation—a default reduction initiative that includes default rate thresholds applicable to all schools, including HBCUs. One provision of the initiative specifies that if a school has a default rate exceeding 20 percent, it must submit to the Department a default management plan for implementing specific measures for reducing the rate. Another provision allows the Department to start procedures to limit, suspend, or terminate a school’s participation in all title IV federal student aid programs if the school’s cohort default rate for a single year exceeds 40 percent. The exemption from the statutory threshold for HBCUs does not extend to these provisions. The federal loans to students at 98 HBCUs represent 2.96 percent of our HBCUs Account for a universe of 2-year or 4-year public or private schools participating in the Small Part of Federal FFEL and FDL programs. The federal government provided about $26.2 Student Loans billion in student loans through the two programs in fiscal year 1995, of which $731 million (2.8 percent) was loans to students attending HBCUs. Since fiscal year 1991, the amount of loans to students at HBCUs has consistently accounted for a small part of all such loans made to postsecondary students (see fig. 1). Page 4 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 Figure 1: Percentage of Total FFEL and FDL Dollar Amounts Awarded to HBCU Students, Fiscal Years 1991-95 Percent 3.5 3 2.8 2.8 2.7 2.7 2.6 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Fiscal Year Although the total share of federal student loans to HBCU students has remained small during fiscal years 1991-95, the dollar amount of these loans has increased by about 97 percent, from $372 million to $731 million (see fig. 2). Page 5 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 Figure 2: Dollar Amount of Loans Under FFEL and FDL to Students Attending HBCUs, Fiscal Years 1991-95 Millions of Dollars 800 731 624 600 473 403 400 372 200 0 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Fiscal Year FDL FFEL Note: The 1994 amount includes $1.5 million under the Federal Direct Loan (FDL) program. In each fiscal year, from 1991 through 1993, the aggregate cohort default Aggregate Default rate for HBCUs was about three times as high as the rate for non-HBCUs. Rates for HBCUs and There was little variation in the rates from year to year, with HBCU rates Non-HBCUs Show ranging from 21.1 to 22.3 percent and non-HBCU rates from 6.9 to 7.4 percent (see fig. 3). Large and Consistent Differences Page 6 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 Figure 3: Aggregate FFEL Default Rates for HBCUs and Non-HBCUs, Fiscal Years 1991-93 Cohorts Percent 25 22.2 22.3 21.1 20 15 10 6.9 7.4 7.2 5 0 1991 1992 1993 Fiscal Year HBCU Non-HBCU For the various types of schools, HBCU default rates are lowest among 4-year private schools (20 percent in fiscal year 1993) and highest among 2-year private schools (42.5 percent) (see table 1). Compared with non-HBCUs, HBCUs had higher default rates for all kinds of schools (public, private, 4-year, and 2-year) and in each fiscal year from 1991 through 1993. Page 7 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 Table 1: Comparison of FFEL Default Rates by Kind of School for HBCUs School FFEL default rates (in percent) and Non-HBCUs, Fiscal Years 1991-93 Kind No. 1991 1992 1993 Cohorts HBCUs 4-year public 40 21.7 22.2 21.4 4-year private 49 21.4 21.8 20.0 2-year public 6 33.4 24.4 23.8 2-year private 3 52.9 38.8 42.5 Non-HBCUs 4-year public 518 5.9 6.3 6.0 4-year private 1,310 5.0 5.7 5.5 2-year public 942 14.1 14.3 14.4 2-year public 439 12.7 12.5 12.6 a Proprietary 2,086 26.3 23.3 21.8 a There are no HBCU proprietary schools. The total number of student loan dollars in default per school averaged HBCUs Have Larger nearly four times higher at HBCUs than at non-HBCUs. In fiscal year 1992, the Dollar Amounts in last year for which complete data on defaulted amounts were available, Default Per School HBCU defaults averaged $464,209 compared with $119,307 for non-HBCUs (see table 2). This was primarily the result of default rates being about Than Non-HBCUs three times as great for HBCUs as for non-HBCUs. The average borrower in default at HBCUs or non-HBCUs had nearly the same amount in default— $4,084 at HBCUs, $4,091 at non-HBCUs. Table 2: Selected Characteristics for HBCUs and Non-HBCUs, Fiscal Year Non- 1992 Cohort Selected characteristic HBCUs HBCUs Number of schools 98 3,209 Borrower default rate 22.3% 7.4% Avg. dollars in default per school $464,209 $119,307 Avg. dollars in default per borrower $4,084 $4,091 Avg. borrowers in default per school 114 29 Avg. borrowers repaying loans per school 510 393 Avg. 1994 fall enrollees per school 2,788 4,412 Defaulted borrowers as percentage of enrollees 4.1% 0.7% Borrowers in repayment as percentage of enrollees 18.3% 8.9% Note: The fiscal year 1992 cohort was the latest year for which the amount of dollars in default was available. Page 8 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 For both HBCUs and non-HBCUs, the average dollars in default for 4-year schools was higher than that for 2-year schools. For example, in the fiscal year 1992 cohort, defaulted dollars for 4-year HBCUs was $491,083 and for 2-year HBCUs, $165,243 (see app. II). In addition, to determine whether larger 4-year schools might have lower default rates but higher dollar volumes in default,6 for the 1992 cohort, we analyzed default data by size of school enrollment. We found that at HBCUs, larger schools had lower default rates and much higher volumes of dollars in default than smaller schools. At non-HBCUs, larger schools had nearly the same default rates as smaller schools, but much higher volumes of dollars in default. However, for both the larger and smaller schools, HBCUs had significantly higher default rates and more dollars in default than non-HBCUs. (See app. III.) In analyzing student loan dollars in default compared with loans in repayment, we found that the dollar default rate for HBCUs, in fiscal year 1992, was 19.7 percent. This compares with a dollar default rate for proprietary schools of 19.1 percent and for all other non-HBCUs of 5.6 percent. (See app. IV.) If the high default rates for the fiscal years 1991-93 cohorts persist, 22 of Over 20 Percent of the 98 HBCUs (over 20 percent), after their statutory exemption from HBCUs Could Lose default rate requirements ends in July 1998, could become ineligible for Student Loan continued participation in federal student loan programs. The 22 schools had cohort default rates of 25 percent or more in those 3 fiscal years. Eligibility Given fall 1994 enrollments, about 29,000 (11 percent) of HBCU students attended these 22 HBCUs. During fiscal year 1995, students attending the 22 schools received about $80 million in federal education loans. (See table 3 for these and other possible outcomes under current law and varying default rate thresholds.) 6 In our analysis of default rates by enrollment size, we defined smaller schools as those with enrollments of less than 5,000 students and larger schools as those with enrollments of greater than or equal to 5,000 students. Page 9 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 Table 3: Varying Default Rate Thresholds at Which HBCUs Could Percentage at Lose Eligibility for FFEL Participation default rate HBCUs that could HBCU loan volume Percentage of total in Fiscal Year 1998 thresholda lose eligibility in fiscal year 1995 HBCU loan volume 25 22 $80,030,772 10.9 30 11 10,163,511 1.4 35 6 5,380,842 0.7 40 1 2,280,123 0.3 a Default rates are based on fiscal years 1991-93 cohort data, which are the most recent available. If the legislative exemption expires, cohort data from fiscal years 1994-96 are likely to be the most recent data available for determining eligibility to participate in federal student loan programs in fiscal year 1998. High default rates could also have other effects on a number of HBCUs. By regulation, the Department requires that schools with default rates exceeding a 20 percent threshold must submit a default management plan for reducing their default rates. HBCUs are not exempt from this requirement. For the fiscal year 1993 cohort, 53 (54 percent) of the 98 HBCUs had default rates above 20 percent. In comparison, 221 (7 percent) of the 3,209 non-HBCUs had default rates exceeding 20 percent. Further, the Department may limit, suspend, or terminate school participation in all title IV federal student aid programs if cohort default rates exceed 40 percent for a single year. For the 1993 cohort, 7 HBCUs and 17 non-HBCUs exceeded the 40 percent threshold. According to Department of Education officials, of the 17 non-HBCUs, 14 no longer participate in FFEL and 3 are contesting their default rates through the Department’s appeal process. Of the 7 HBCUs, 1 recently terminated its participation in title IV student aid programs because it lost accreditation; the other 6 may continue to participate because the Department has not initiated actions to limit, suspend, or terminate these schools’ participation because of their high default rates. The Department of Education reviewed a draft of this report and had no Agency Comments comments. Copies of this letter will be provided to appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of Education, and other interested parties. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this report further, please contact me on (202) 512-7014. Major contributors include Page 10 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs B-275208 Joseph J. Eglin, Jr., Assistant Director; Daniel C. Jacobsen; Robert B. Miller; and Charles M. Novak. Sincerely yours, Carlotta C. Joyner Director, Education and Employment Issues Page 11 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Contents Letter 1 Appendix I 14 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, by State, Kind of School, and Enrollment Appendix II 18 Comparison of Selected Characteristics at 4-Year and 2-Year HBCUs and Non-HBCUs, Fiscal Year 1992 Cohort Appendix III 19 Comparison of Selected Characteristics at 4-Year HBCUs and Non-HBCUs, by School Enrollment, Fiscal Year 1992 Cohort Page 12 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Contents Appendix IV 20 Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) in Repayment and Default, by Kind of School, Fiscal Year 1992 Cohort Tables Table 1: Comparison of FFEL Default Rates by Kind of School for 8 HBCUs and Non-HBCUs, Fiscal Years 1991-93 Cohorts Table 2: Selected Characteristics for HBCUs and Non-HBCUs, 8 Fiscal Year 1992 Cohort Table 3: Varying Default Rate Thresholds at Which HBCUs Could 10 Lose Eligibility for FFEL Participation in Fiscal Year 1998 Figures Figure 1: Percentage of Total FFEL and FDL Dollar Amounts 5 Awarded to HBCU Students, Fiscal Years 1991-95 Figure 2: Dollar Amount of loans Under FFEL and FDL to 6 Students Attending HBCUs, Fiscal Years 1991-95 Figure 3: Aggregate FFEL Default Rates for HBCUs and 7 Non-HBCUs, Fiscal Years 1991-93 Cohorts Abbreviations FDL Federal Direct Loan FFEL Federal Family Education Loan HBCU Historically Black Colleges and Universities Page 13 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Appendix I Historically Black Colleges and Universities, by State, Kind of School, and Enrollment Fall enrollment HBCUs included in the review State Kind of school 1994 Alabama A&M University Ala. 4-yr. public 5,543 Alabama State University Ala. 4-yr. public 5,037 J.F. Drake State Technical College Ala. 2-yr. public 768 Miles College Ala. 4-yr. private 1,068 Oakwood College Ala. 4-yr. private 1,534 Selma University Ala. 4-yr. private 206 Stillman College Ala. 4-yr. private 913 Talladega College Ala. 4-yr. private 976 Trenholm State Technical College Ala. 2-yr. public 785 Tuskegee University Ala. 4-yr. private 3,322 Arkansas Baptist College Ark. 4-yr. private 225 Philander Smith College Ark. 4-yr. private 841 Shorter College Ark. 2-yr. private 282 Univ. of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Ark. 4-yr. public 3,823 Howard University D.C. 4-yr. private 10,115 Univ. of the District of Columbia D.C. 4-yr. public 10,599 Delaware State University Del. 4-yr. public 3,381 Bethune-Cookman College Fla. 4-yr. private 2,345 Edward Waters College Fla. 4-yr. private 782 Florida A&M University Fla. 4-yr. public 10,084 Florida Memorial College Fla. 4-yr. private 1,320 Albany State College Ga. 4-yr. public 3,062 Clark Atlanta University Ga. 4-yr. private 5,193 Fort Valley State College Ga. 4-yr. public 2,823 Interdenominational Theological Center Ga. 4-yr. private 398 Morehouse College Ga. 4-yr. private 2,992 Morehouse School of Medicine Ga. 4-yr. private 164 Morris Brown College Ga. 4-yr. private 1,894 Paine College Ga. 4-yr. private 721 Savannah State College Ga. 4-yr. public 3,253 Spelman College Ga. 4-yr. private 1,977 Kentucky State University Ky. 4-yr. public 2,563 Dillard University La. 4-yr. private 1,675 Grambling State University La. 4-yr. public 7,610 Southern University and A&M College at La. 4-yr. public 9,904 Baton Rouge Southern University at New Orleans La. 4-yr. public 4,302 (continued) Page 14 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Appendix I Historically Black Colleges and Universities, by State, Kind of School, and Enrollment Fall enrollment HBCUs included in the review State Kind of school 1994 Southern University at La. 2-yr. public 1,267 Shreveport-Bossier City Xavier University of Louisiana La. 4-yr. private 3,463 Bowie State University Md. 4-yr. public 4,896 Coppin State College Md. 4-yr. public 3,380 Morgan State University Md. 4-yr. public 5,766 University of Maryland Eastern Shore Md. 4-yr. public 2,925 Lewis College of Business Mich. 2-yr. private 245 Harris-Stowe State College Mo. 4-yr. public 1,757 Lincoln University Mo. 4-yr. public 3,512 Alcorn State University Mo. 4-yr. public 2,742 Coahoma Community College Miss. 2-yr. public 969 Jackson State University Miss. 4-yr. public 6,224 Mary Holmes College Miss. 2-yr. private 327 Mississippi Valley State University Miss. 4-yr. public 2,182 Rust College Miss. 4-yr. private 1,055 Tougaloo College Miss. 4-yr. private 1,105 Barber-Scotia College N.C. 4-yr. private 432 Bennett College N.C. 4-yr. private 655 Elizabeth City State University N.C. 4-yr. public 2,099 Fayetteville State University N.C. 4-yr. public 4,109 Johnson C. Smith University N.C. 4-yr. private 1,413 Livingstone College N.C. 4-yr. private 836 North Carolina A&T State University N.C. 4-yr. public 8,136 North Carolina Central University N.C. 4-yr. public 5,692 Saint Augustine’s College N.C. 4-yr. private 1,673 Shaw University N.C. 4-yr. private 2,432 Winston-Salem State University N.C. 4-yr. public 2,915 Central State University Ohio 4-yr. public 2,763 Wilberforce University Ohio 4-yr. private 976 Langston University Okla. 4-yr. public 3,408 Cheyney State University of Pennsylvania Pa. 4-yr. public 1,357 Lincoln University Pa. 4-yr. public 1,371 Allen University S.C. 4-yr. private 256 Benedict College S.C. 4-yr. private 1,501 Claflin College S.C. 4-yr. private 1,023 Denmark Technical College S.C. 2-yr. public 840 (continued) Page 15 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Appendix I Historically Black Colleges and Universities, by State, Kind of School, and Enrollment Fall enrollment HBCUs included in the review State Kind of school 1994 Morris College S.C. 4-yr. private 889 South Carolina State University S.C. 4-yr. public 4,693 Voorhees College S.C. 4-yr. private 716 Fisk University Tenn. 4-yr. private 872 Knoxville College Tenn. 4-yr. private 728 Lane College Tenn. 4-yr. private 667 LeMoyne-Owen College Tenn. 4-yr. private 1,436 Meharry Medical College Tenn. 4-yr. private 726 Tennessee State University Tenn. 4-yr. public 8,180 Huston-Tillotson College Tex. 4-yr. private 613 Jarvis Christian College Tex. 4-yr. private 382 Paul Quinn College Tex. 4-yr. private 667 Prairie View A&M University Tex. 4-yr. public 5,849 Saint Phillip’s College Tex. 2-yr. public 6,571 Southwestern Christian College Tex. 4-yr. private 182 Texas College Tex. 4-yr. private 262 Texas Southern University Tex. 4-yr. public 10,078 Wiley College Tex. 4-yr. private 584 Hampton University Va. 4-yr. private 5,769 Norfolk State University Va. 4-yr. public 8,667 Saint Paul’s College Va. 4-yr. private 763 Virginia State University Va. 4-yr. public 4,007 Virginia Union University Va. 4-yr. private 1,525 University of the Virgin Islands V.I. 4-yr. public 3,095 Bluefield State College W.Va. 4-yr. public 2,609 West Virginia State College W.Va. 4-yr. public 4,519 HBCUs excluded from the review Bishop State Community Collegea Ala. 2-yr. public 4,511 Lawson State Community Collegea Ala. 2-yr. public 1,920 a Fredd State Technical College Ala. 2-yr. public 190 Concordia Collegea Ala. 2-yr. private 435 Hinds Community College, Utica Miss. 2-yr. public 964 Campusb Clinton Junior Collegea S.C. 2-yr. private 53 (Table notes on next page) Page 16 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Appendix I Historically Black Colleges and Universities, by State, Kind of School, and Enrollment Note: The number of HBCUs included in the review is 98; the number excluded is 6. a This HBCU has not been a participant in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and, therefore, the Department of Education’s default rate report for the fiscal year 1993 cohort contained no information for it. b The Department’s default rate report for the fiscal year 1993 cohort contains data for Hinds Community College, but default data for the Hinds Utica Campus are not separated out. According to a vice-president of the college, this campus is the portion of Hinds Community College that is recognized as an HBCU. Therefore, for review purposes, Hinds Community College was considered a non-HBCU. Page 17 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Appendix II Comparison of Selected Characteristics at 4-Year and 2-Year HBCUs and Non-HBCUs, Fiscal Year 1992 Cohort 4-year schools 2-year schools Selected characteristic HBCU Non-HBCU HBCU Non-HBCU Number of schools 89 1,828 9 1,381 Borrower default rate 22.0% 6.0% 30.8% 14.0% Avg. borrowers in default per school 120 34 54 23 Avg. borrowers in repayment per school 544 568 174 161 Avg. dollars in default per school $491,083 $162,715 $165,243 $61,203 Avg. dollars in default per borrower $4,101 $4,758 $3,085 $2,720 Avg. 1994 fall enrollment per school 2,935 4,667 1,339 4,046 Borrowers in default as a percentage of all enrollees 4.1% 0.7% 4.0% 0.6% Borrowers in repayment as a percentage of all enrollees 18.5% 12.2% 13.0% 4.0% Page 18 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Appendix III Comparison of Selected Characteristics at 4-Year HBCUs and Non-HBCUs, by School Enrollment, Fiscal Year 1992 Cohort Larger enrollmenta Smaller enrollmentb Selected characteristic HBCU Non-HBCU HBCU Non-HBCU Number of schools 17 474 72 1,303 Borrower default rate 20.4% 6.1% 23.3% 6.0% Avg. borrowers in default per school 259 91 87 14 Avg. borrowers in repayment per school 1,271 1,503 372 236 Avg. dollars in default per school $1,148,151 $424,965 $335,942 $68,419 Avg. dollars in default per borrower $4,427 $4,673 $3,871 $4,875 Avg. 1994 fall enrollment per school 7,556 13,566 1,843 1,430 Borrowers in default as a percentage of all students 3.4% 0.7% 4.7% 1.0% Borrowers in repayment as a percentage of all students 16.8% 11.1% 20.2% 16.5% Percentage of total HBCU or non-HBCU enrollment 49.2% 77.5% 50.8% 22.5% a “Larger enrollment” includes schools with fall 1994 enrollments of greater than or equal to 5,000 students. b “Smaller enrollment” includes schools with fall 1994 enrollments of less than 5,000 students. Page 19 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Appendix IV Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) in Repayment and Default, by Kind of School, Fiscal Year 1992 Cohort Dollars in millions Dollar default Loans Percentage of total rate (in Kind of school Repayment Default Repayment Default percent) HBCU $ 228 $ 45 2.8 7.0 19.7 Non-HBCU, proprietary 1,134 217 13.8 33.6 19.1 Non-HBCU, all others 6,853 383 83.4 59.4 5.6 Total $8,215 $645 100.0 100.0 7.9 Note: The Department of Education’s database provided information on fiscal year 1992 dollars in repayment and in default for only 5,670 of the 5,855 schools in our universe of schools, as follows: HBCU, 97 of 98; Non-HBCU, proprietary, 1,988 of 2,086; Non-HBCU, all others, 3,585 of 3,671. (104855) Page 20 GAO/HEHS-97-33 Loan Defaults at HBCUs Ordering Information The first copy of each GAO report and testimony is free. Additional copies are $2 each. 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Student Loans: Default Rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Published by the Government Accountability Office on 1997-01-21.
Below is a raw (and likely hideous) rendition of the original report. (PDF)