Here Are the Programs That Failed the Gainful-Employment Rule

For the first time, U.S. Department of Education on Monday released the names of programs and institutions that failed accountability standards for the new gainful-employment rule. Over 800 programs that failed the department’s standards risk losing federal student-aid funding, the department announced.

About 98 percent of the failing programs were offered by for-profit institutions, but some failing programs were at nonprofit institutions. Some of the more prominent failing programs included a theater-arts program at Harvard University, a music-performance program at the John Hopkins University, and a music-technology program at the University of Southern California.

To be considered a failing program, its graduates must have annual loan payments that exceed 12 percent of their total earnings or 30 percent of their discretionary income. Programs that are rated failing in two of three consecutive years are ineligible to receive Title IV student-aid funds.

The failing programs listed below do not include programs given a “zone” rating, a slightly lower level of concern. Those programs’ graduates’ annual loan payments were 20 to 30 percent of discretionary income or 8 to 12 percent of total earnings.

For a full list of programs and how they measured up, click here.

Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is a web writer. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.