Moving to the Direct Loan Program

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July 23, 2009

Even though Congress is unlikely to complete its work on legislation to move all colleges and universities to the Federal Direct Loan program (or not) until sometime this fall, the Department of Education is gearing up to handle the potential migration of several thousand institutions by July 1, 2010. In a letter sent to college presidents recently, ED advised institutions to begin preparing for the transition process now.

The new head of ED's Student Financial Aid office, William Taggart, informed presidents that electronic accounts necessary to allow institutions to send and receive Direct Loan records and reports will be set up for each institution. Doing so does not obligate the institution to move to the Direct Loan program. He also encouraged institutional personnel to begin learning about Direct Loan processes and responsibilities of institutions through training and resources offered by ED.

To help, NACUBO is offering an on-demand webcast, Moving to the Federal Direct Loan Program: Understanding Business Processes, recorded in May 2008, at no charge to members. Additional resources are available from NACUBO's partner in the webcast, the National Direct Student Loan Coalition.