Survey Reaffirms That Colleges Are Fed Up With Federal Regulation

Colleges feel burdened by federal regulation and believe many rules could be eliminated without harming students or taxpayers, according to a new survey of senior college executives and administrators.

The survey, which Congress ordered as part of the 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, asked respondents about 15 regulations stemming from the law that colleges had identified as being particularly onerous. Administrators described 14 of the 15 rules as “burdensome” or “overly burdensome,” and said many could be eliminated “without losing necessary protections.” They said doing so would yield significant savings that could be used to expand counseling and customer services and increase need-based student aid.

In addition, a majority of administrators said that the government’s “regulatory-burden calculations” underestimate the burden that complying with the federal rules places on colleges. Many respondents described the negotiated rule-making process—in which panels of stakeholders meet to craft regulations—as effective but needing change.

The survey was conducted by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, which is delivering its findings, in the form of a report, to Congress and to the secretary of education on Wednesday. The committee will hold a hearing on its findings on Friday and plans to follow up on the survey with in-depth case studies of burdens and costs at a sampling of institutions.

It’s far from clear, however, that anything will come of the effort. Colleges have been complaining about their regulatory burden for years, and the rules imposed on them have only multiplied. The latest reauthorization of the Higher Education Act—the same law that required the Advisory Committee’s survey—doubled the reporting burden for colleges.

This is the fourth large-scale effort since 1995 to reduce the regulatory burden, but the first to collect data at an institutional level, according to the report.