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August 09, 2006, 02:44 PM ET
No More 50-Percent Rule for Online Education
The Department of Education released its final regulations in the Federal Register today to limit the application of the 50-percent rule, which prevented institutions that enrolled more than half their students through distance education from participating in federal financial-aid programs. Congress made an exception to the rule earlier this year for institutions that provide instruction through telecommunications (The Chronicle, February 3), such as online education, and the new Education Department rules simply reflect that change.
The department did clarify that the technology used for telecommunications must involve a significant amount of interactivity. That is to prevent correspondence programs from skirting the 50-percent rule by including minor e-mail exchanges between the students and professor, or putting a syllabus on a Web site. The department estimates that the change in the 50-percent rule could increase the number of students eligible for federal student aid by 30,000 in 2006 and 2007, and that 17,000 of those students will be eligible for Pell Grants each year. —Dan Carnevale
Categories: Legal-Troubles
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