A new U.S. Department of Education rule making certain lower-paying degrees ineligible for student loans or grants may affect Illinois higher education institutions like Illinois Wesleyan University.
Under the Student Tuition and Transparency Program [STATS] and Earnings Accountability rule, undergraduate programs must demonstrate that students earning bachelor’s degrees earn more annually than the average high school graduate in that school’s state. Graduate programs also would be compared to the average holder of a bachelor’s degree.
“At its base level, a college education's about expanding the mind, and so if our measuring stick is only about jobs, then we're on the wrong platform,” said IWU president Sheahon Zenger in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
About one in four IWU students were eligible for Pell Grants, at an average of $5,578 in aid, according to 2023-24 school year data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System [IPEDS]. Pell Grants are different from student loans because they do not have to be paid back by the student.
The latest federal move comes as part of a wider Trump administration goal of hitting a “reset button” on higher education to both drive down costs and hold institutions accountable.
If a program fails to demonstrate high enough earnings in two out of three years, it would lose eligibility to participate in the federal Direct Loan program. After three consecutive years, eligibility for Title IV of the Higher Education Act [HEA] that includes Pell Grants, would be terminated for those college programs.
“I would hate to see what this nation or any nation looks like without an educated populace,” said Zenger. “Some have, and it usually doesn't bode well for the citizenry.”
Enrollment trends
Illinois Wesleyan started the school year with almost 1,700 students, a high point in enrollment for the past decade. The goal is to continue to find a balance, said Zenger.
“One year you'll have a huge class, the next class not quite as big because we can't handle huge classes every year. That's a good problem to have,” he said. “We have a certain number we want to stay within, and we're really close to that sweet spot.”
IWU recently announced a move that might lead to an increase in its in-county student headcount — by expanding a program that guarantees admission to McLean County seniors, from just five high schools to all 13. It also upped the scholarship money guaranteed to in-county students to $40,000.
Money coming in from current students makes up a big chunk of revenue for a university, including IWU. Zenger said that is where the school's new capital campaign comes in. It aims to raise $200 million to support a wide range of spending needs for the university.
“You only have so many sources of revenue, and the more help that your donors, your alums, and friends alike provide, the less pressure you then have on your enrollment,” said Zenger, adding that international students do not make up a significant portion of the IWU student body.
“We're in the five to 20 range, and that sounds a little bit murky, but that's the range where we typically are most years. It's not something we depend on,” he said.
Recently, IWU professor Gabriel Spalding said at a Documentation Project event that at private universities, international students are important for subsidizing the enrollment of domestic students. But Zenger maintained, though it is different at some other public and private universities, the per-student revenue from international students does not differ much from domestic students.
“We bring in international students to really provide context for the domestic students because I think that's part of your experience, but it's also not something we've ever relied on as a revenue stream,” he said.
