Latitudes

Federal-loan rules come into conflict with post-pandemic rise in online education

Efforts are underway to amend the restriction, either through stand-alone legislation or as part of a congressional spending bill.

The prohibition has been in place for more than a dozen years, but the issue has become more pressing as colleges around the globe have offered more virtual or hybrid courses following the Covid-19 pandemic, said Harrison Wadsworth, executive director of the International Education Council, which represents overseas colleges and academic programs that take part in the U.S. federal student-loan program. Students studying at foreign universities are ineligible for federal loans if their programs include even a single course or component of a course that is online.

Student-loan recipients in the United States are not subject to a similar stipulation. More than 30,000 Americans pursue degrees abroad.

Congress temporarily lifted the restriction during the pandemic as courses worldwide moved online and twice extended it, through this June. Waivers to permit online study are still in place in cases where emergencies have been declared, such as during the current war in Israel and Gaza, Wadsworth noted.

Much as in the United States, students and institutions abroad have grown more accustomed to virtual learning, and such courses have become more commonplace. Many current students have had flexibility in course delivery for their entire time in college. “What was a problem before has gotten worse,” Wadsworth said. “It’s become a crisis now.”

It’s not simply a matter of steering students away from online courses. Wadsworth said the prohibition applies if students are taking in-person courses but are enrolled in programs of study that include any online teaching.

Some institutions have found workarounds. For example, when the accreditor for McGill University, in Canada, required one of its engineering programs to add an online, no-credit course on diversity, equity, and inclusion, the university created a new, separate program for the roughly 50 Americans who were enrolled while participating in the federal-loan program. But most foreign colleges or programs enroll smaller numbers of American students, so such accommodations are often not feasible.

Wadsworth said the restriction dates back to a 2006 change to the Higher Education Act that actually repealed limitations on online education. But when it came to foreign colleges, the revisions, perhaps inadvertently, made any program taught even in part using the internet or other telecommunications ineligible for the federal-loan program. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education interpreted that provision as forbidding online education.

Bipartisan legislation introduced in April would amend the Higher Education Act to permit students overseas to retain their federal aid if no more than 12.5 percent of their program is offered through distance education — or about one course a year. They also must be physically present in the foreign country where the institution is located.

“One thing we learned during the pandemic is the value of high-quality online learning programs. While the worst of the pandemic is behind us, these programs continue to be a key tool for higher education institutions,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, who co-sponsored the measure with Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican from Indiana. “This bill is a commonsense reform to help ensure that American students attending international universities remain eligible for federal financial aid if their coursework includes online components.”

Wadsworth said he would have preferred legislation that permitted a larger share of courses to be online, given the prevalence of virtual and hybrid learning. Still, his organization is supporting the Braun-Kaine measure.

While Wadsworth said he has not encountered any opposition to the bill, no action has been taken, so supporters are pushing for the reform to be included in final appropriations legislation for the Education Department. (Congress last month passed a resolution funding the federal government through early 2024.)

There’s an urgent need for a fix, Wadsworth said. “I really believe the country is served by students of various economic backgrounds who have the option and opportunity to study abroad.”

This is not the only instance in which the post-pandemic growth in online education is coming into conflict with regulations for international study. A return to federal student-visa policy that limits the number of online classes that international students at American colleges can take each term is creating headaches for some foreign students who complain about the lack of availability of in-person courses.

House could approve tougher oversight of foreign funds to colleges

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week on legislation that would tighten reporting and oversight of foreign gifts and contracts to American colleges.

The so-called Deterrent Act, an acronym for “Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions,” would lower the threshold for colleges to report foreign gifts and contracts to $50,000 from $250,000 and bar colleges from entering into contracts with foreign “countries of concern.”

Faculty and staff members at research-intensive institutions would have to disclose individual funding from overseas. Colleges that fail to comply with the measure’s provisions could lose access to federal financial aid.

House Republicans have argued that the measure is needed because colleges have not been open in reporting foreign funds. “No longer will stealthy streams of cash be funneled to postsecondary schools,” said Rep. Tom Cole, a Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the rules committee. But Democrats, such as Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the education committee, counter that colleges have already improved their accounting to the federal government and that new requirements are so onerous that scientists would have to report “coffee and doughnuts” from overseas partners.

Eighteen higher-education groups have signed a letter opposing the legislation, saying it could “broadly curtail” international-research partnerships and academic and cultural exchanges. They argued that strict reporting requirements could be a burden for colleges, raise privacy concerns for faculty and staff members, and do little to improve research security.

House members began floor debate on the bill on Tuesday. The measure has previously passed in legislative committees on party-line votes.

International scholars and Title IX

The sexual-misconduct accusations raise questions about intimate relationships when one person has professional power over another. But Fan’s complaint also suggests that foreign scholars can be particularly vulnerable to abuse because of their visa status and lack of familiarity with American laws. Both Fan and Jiang are from China.

My colleague Katherine Mangan has the story. For more background, check out my article from last year on international students and dating violence and campus sexual assault.

Around the globe

Republican senators are urging President Biden to suspend travel from China because of the spread of a respiratory illness there.

As many as 54,000 international students, or about 5 percent of the foreign-student population in the United States, may be among the pool of refugee students, according to estimates from the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and Duolingo. The new report is part of an initial effort to collect better data on refugee students.

A survey is seeking to identify strategic priorities for international education among American higher-education leaders and other stakeholders.

Asian American and civil-rights groups have signed a letter to congressional leaders expressing “strong opposition” to efforts to reinstate the China Initiative, a federal investigation into academic and economic ties to China.

U.S. government actions to protect American intellectual property from being poached by the Chinese government are “well intentioned,” but have resulted in “significant harm” to researchers and scientific cooperation, two Stanford University scholars write.

China and India lead the way in graduating students with degrees in science and technology fields.

Fifteen Palestinian universities have released a statement that condemns Israel’s bombardment of civilian targets in Gaza and says Israeli universities bear responsibility for the government’s treatment of Palestinians.

The American embassy in India will require prospective students scheduling visa appointments to include their passport information as part of efforts to combat fraud and abuse in the appointment system. The U.S. Department of State is also expanding its capacity to issue visas in the country, adding staff members and opening new consulates.

Several female Afghan students said their American visa applications were rejected even though they had full scholarships because couldn’t prove strong ties to their home country.

Legislation introduced in Australia would set up an independent board to approve competitive national research grants in an effort to end political interference.

Canada will join Horizon Europe, the European Union’s research program.

Argentinian academics are concerned that the election of a right-wing presidential candidate could lead to a sharp reduction in funding for universities and research.

The University of Bristol will not change the names of campus buildings that are named for people with ties to the global slave trade, but it has pledged £10 million (about $12.6 million) to deal with racial inequities.

And finally …

In “Tales from the Departure Lounge,” Nick Cuthbert and Andy Plant explore international education and travel. I joined the pair on their podcast to talk about writing on airplanes, parasites, screech (the Newfoundland rum, not the Washington Nationals mascot), and how I’m always angling for a dinner invitation when overseas.

Thanks for reading. I always welcome your feedback and ideas for future reporting, so drop me a line at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. You can also connect with me on X or LinkedIn. If you like this newsletter, please share it with colleagues and friends. They can sign up here.