College groups are “extremely concerned” about federal guidance’s impact on study abroad
New U.S. Department of Education regulatory guidance on third-party vendors could have a broader chilling effect on international education than previously understood, with the potential to significantly increase oversight of study-abroad providers and universities that deliver American programs overseas, and even to prohibit colleges from working with such foreign partners.
The concerns stem from updated guidance that classifies entities that provide “any percentage” of educational and instructional content as “third-party servicers,” subject to expanded reporting requirements. It also states that colleges may not work with providers on programs eligible for Title IV federal-student aid if those providers are located outside the United States, or if their owner or operator is not an American citizen or permanent resident.
As Latitudes reported last week, another aspect of the Title IV guidance, dealing with compensation-based recruitment, had already set off alarm bells for colleges that have contracts with overseas agencies to recruit international students. With many American colleges working with outside programs or foreign universities to offer residential study-abroad options for their students, the “Dear Colleague” letter, released by the Department of Education last month, has the potential to affect the international activities of a broad swath of institutions.
Although the guidance appears to have been spurred by concerns about lack of oversight of online-program managers, outside companies that help colleges run online programs and recruit students to them, it has injected fresh uncertainty into study abroad, which has only begun to regain its footing after Covid-19 halted nearly all international exchange.
“I’m extremely concerned,” said Melissa A. Torres, president of the Forum on Education Abroad, an association of American and overseas colleges and independent study-abroad programs. She noted that previous interpretations of the regulations have excluded study-abroad providers but that the new guidance contains no such language.
Torres has been hearing from colleges worried about the new reporting burdens the guidance could impose on them, and on their foreign partners, including requirements for compliance audits and the sharing of contracts with the Education Department. Some colleges have approved hundreds of study-abroad programs with dozens of providers, Torres said. Could they all be classified as third-party servicers and subject to increased scrutiny?
Likewise, there are questions about the impact of the guidelines on student-exchange programs with foreign universities. In some cases, local laws require U.S.-based education-abroad organizations to set up foreign entities in order to operate programs in certain countries. And colleges work with small locally run program operators in order to give students opportunities to study in off-the-beaten-path destinations, particularly in Africa and Latin America, Torres said. Could the requirement that third-party providers be American-owned and -based severely curtail, or even end, such relationships?
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment about the guidance and its potential impact on colleges’ international activities. In an interview with Times Higher Education, a spokesman for the department said it is primarily concerned with “the area of recruitment and activities tied to the administration of federal student-aid funds,” suggesting officials may be less focused on curriculum and instruction.
The department is accepting public comment on the guidance, which will go into effect on September 1.
Although she has more questions than answers, Torres said she planned to hold a webinar to brief colleges and programs. She also has been huddling with representatives of other higher- and international-education groups to figure out next steps.
Colleges continue to worry about the impact of the guidance on international recruitment as well, as third-party agencies have become an increasingly prominent part of American institutions’ efforts to attract foreign students. Although the Dear Colleague letter doesn’t specifically mention international recruiters, there is “widespread concern” that they could be considered third-party servicers, said a person within the higher-education policy community, who spoke on background, as her group is still determining its response. Such partnerships would seemingly be off-limits under the guidance because the agencies are located overseas.
The policy expert said she hoped that the Department of Education would rewrite the guidance following the public-comment period to narrow the focus to the type of third-party relationships it is seeking to review. “It is never great when there is so much ambiguity in regulation.”
Anxiety about the guidance is also spreading to Europe, which typically hosts more than half of Americans who study abroad.
Stephen Robinson is director of Champlain College’s Dublin campus and chair of the European Association of Study Abroad. While the Vermont college owns the Irish study-abroad campus, Robinson, who holds British and Canadian citizenship, runs it. Would he be considered the “operator” under the guidance? A survey he conducted three years ago found that only four in 10 resident directors of European study-abroad programs are U.S. citizens.
“It’s all a mess, and I don’t think that” the Department of Education “has thought this through,” Robinson wrote in an email. “It all makes me assume that either the letter is very poorly worded, or they have no concept of education abroad.”
Gian Franco Borio, an Italian lawyer who advises the European study-abroad group, has been analyzing the guidance and said he hoped the department would amend it. Even short-term programs led by American faculty members often work with outside providers to organize educational field trips or deliver other academic content.
If the guidance is enforced the way it is written, it would be “too protectionist,” Borio said in an email. “The real risk is that all or most study-abroad programs and/or private providers that offer educational services … to students coming from U.S. universities and colleges could become unaccessible.”