Changes in Institutions Receiving Military Tuition Assistance?

It has been in the news for a couple of years that private-sector schools are getting a large amount of military veteran assistance benefits from the United States government. More recently, eight of the top ten schools receiving these benefits are in the private sector, collecting more than one billion dollars. The post 9/11 GI bill makes it easier for veterans to utilize the educational benefit and covers full tuition & fees at a public institution or the higher of the actual tuition and fees or $17,500 per academic year at a private institution and stipends for housing and books. Private institutions are spending money and utilizing resources to recruit military students.

Enrolling students who utilize the tuition assistance helps the for-profit institutions follow the law that no more than 90 percent of their revenue come from federal financial-aid programs because military benefits are not considered federal financial aid. However, the private sector is receiving a lot of criticism because of their high drop-out rates, high costs and questionable curriculum.

Because of some of the questionable practices by some of these institutions and the cost of veteran benefits to the U.S. government (approximately 4.4 billion in 2010-11), the Department of Defense is taking steps to enhance the oversight of institutions of higher education who receive money from the tuition assistance program. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) from the Department of Defense (DoD) must be signed by all postsecondary institutions by January 1, 2012 for institutions to continue receiving tuition assistance benefits. This could obviously have a large impact on institutions, but more importantly the students trying to use the benefits.

There are currently just over 1,000 institutions (273 parent institutions and 824 sub institutions) that have signed the Memorandum of Understanding with less than two months for the document to be signed. The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers (AACRAO) is currently in negotiation with the Department of Defense in regards to the terminology of many of the areas of the MOU, from topics all the way from credit transfer to timing of tuition assistance payment and differential tuition prices. The DoD’s defense is that the MOU isn’t going to harm or change any public institution practices but that the oversight is more in line with overseeing for-profit institution’s practices.

While the MOU is a challenge for postsecondary institutions to agree to, it is my hope that an agreement is reached between the DoD and the institutions for the sake of the veterans and/or their families who want to take advantage of the tuition assistance benefits. At UNC, we do have a great Veteran Services Office that provides wonderful service for over 160 veterans and almost that many veteran family members. While just over 300 students taking advantage of the tuition assistance benefit at UNC isn’t large compared to other schools, it is vital that an excellent service is provided to this population of students.

I think with the number of veterans wanting to pursue higher education and the amount of federal dollars spent on the tuition assistance, it is understandable that the DoD wants to have greater oversight of the institutions receiving money. With that being said, I hope the veterans are the real beneficiaries in the long run.