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
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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
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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.
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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).
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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).
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Address Correction Requested
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)