NACUBO Answers Common Questions on New Tuition Discounting Methodology
11/28/2022
NACUBO has issued new draft guidance on tuition and auxiliary discount estimation methodologies and is holding a series of Town Hall webcasts for members to pose questions.
Those participating in October and November Town Halls had three main concerns:
- Interpreting Student Information System (SIS) transaction details
- Academic terms that cross fiscal years
- The application of student loans to account balances
A Q&A is now available, along with clarifications to NACUBO’s draft advisory report.
NACUBO’s draft report includes a conceptual discussion of the discount, new estimation approaches to our calculation, and an explanation of why the alternate method—contained in NACUBO’s 2000-05 Advisory Report and used by most institutions—will no longer be supported as preferred practice by NACUBO.
Updated explanations are highlighted in the new draft report. The updates clarify—
- The definition of the discount for public institutions
- That transaction level payment data from Student Information Systems (SIS) do not have to be analyzed and aggregated to compute the discount
- Rules applied to extracted SIS summary information by student for each sample methodology
- How estimation methodologies correspond to an institution’s policy for awarding aid to its students, to ensure that the discount estimate approximates aid agreements between the institution and its students
The next Town Hall on Tuition Discounting for Public Institutions will be held on December 14. Registration is free for NACUBO members and we encourage you to bring additional questions.
