Enrollment reporting initiative: National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) & National Student Clearinghouse (NSC)

Bryna Gleich
Bryna Gleich Blackbaud Employee
Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud Higher Education Solutions™ Announcements
As of the 26th of March 2024, your organization has access to a group of new fields to streamline enrollment reporting. This is the first phase of our larger Enrollment Reporting initiative for the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) and National Student Clearinghouse (NSC).

These additions to the Education Lists can save significant time when your institution needs to gather data for the NSLDS or to send via NSC.



The six Education Lists already include a wealth of informational columns. The Education Lists combined with the recently added fields work together to enhance enrollment reporting. For information about additional columns, including a description of each with commentary (where relevant), review the online Help documentation for NSLDS and NSC.

New fields include

  • Anticipated completion date – find this on a student’s Contact card and enter an estimate of when the student will complete their degree.
  • Address last modified dates - indicates when an address was last updated.
  • Email last modified dates - indicates when an email was last updated.
  • CIP code – use this optional field on Degrees and Concentrations for more flexibility when you configure programs.
    • Note: CIP code was already available on Majors.

Integration mapping

You’ll also find a new tab which enables you to map custom values in your database to those accepted by the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) for Gender, Race/Ethnicity, U.S. Citizenship, and student Classification.

System mapping

  • We automatically convert state codes and country codes to the proper output for IPEDS, NSLDS, and NSC – which all have their own set of unique codes.
  • Enrollment statuses are universally mapped to the following enrollment statuses.
    1. F (full-time),
    2. Q (three-quarter-time),
    3. H (half-time)
    4. and L (less-than-half-time)
  • Degree-seeking is Yes for a student who has a Degree with an Award level of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.
    • Note: The Award level menu of options on the Degree matches IPEDS program values.

Calculated values

Columns whose names begin with NSC or NSLDS rely on integration mapping and/or the fields named below to perform a logical calculation.
  • NSC Race/Ethnicity - This checks for US Nonresident, Is Latino/Hispanic, and Races, then assigns the appropriate category to the student. Be sure to configure the NSC Integration mapping and wait 24 hours for the mapped data to flow into the list.
  • NSC/NSLDS Enrollment status – This checks the Deceased date, enrollment rows, and enrollment status, to provide the Enrollment status and its associated date.
  • Pell Grant recipient – This value is assigned to students who have a financial aid type that includes the phrase “Pell Grant” with an Awarded decision type for the given session.
  • Program fields – Determines the Program credential, Program CIP, Program name, and Program begin date by first checking for CIP in the following order or hierarchy, and then selecting the credential, name, and Declared on date for that CIP code.
    1. Concentration on Major
    2. Major
    3. Concentration on Degree
    4. Degree
Tip: The data used to perform each of these calculations is included as individual columns in the lists, too, so you can check our work!



Best practices and how-to

Core

  • Be sure to utilize the IPEDS section in the General information tile on the Core profile. Many calculations rely on data from these fields.
  • To place students in the correct race/ethnicity category:
    • Any students who fit in the US Nonresident (previously Nonresident alien) category for IPEDS or NSLDS should be tracked using the US Nonresident field.
    • Students who fall into the Hispanic (H) category should be marked as Is Latino/Hispanic on the Contact Card.
    • The Race field – rather than Ethnicity – is used for the rest of the NSC race/ethnicity calculation.
  • Configure the Integration mapping, NSC tab. (Values will be available in the Education lists the following day.)
  • Populate Anticipated completion date in the Contact card on the General information tile. (A new import for this and IPEDS fields is coming soon!)
  • To record the student’s date of graduation, populate the Depart date in the student’s final Enrollment row for that program and mark the Graduated checkbox.

Academics

  • Align your degree/certificate/program credential levels to the IPEDS values, as available in the Award level field on the Degree.
  • To track students’ programs for NSLDS/NSC
    • Enter the CIP code at the Degree or Area of study level which identifies the student’s NSLDS/NSC program.
    • Use the Declared on and Completed on dates at the Degree or Area of study level which identifies the student’s NSLDS/NSC program.

Billing management

  • When you name Pell Grants, include “Pell Grant” in the Financial aid type.

What's next?

In a future update, our team will create an export which takes the data from these new columns and delivers it in the file and data format required for National Student Clearinghouse Enrollment Reporting.

Do you want to participate in the development of the export? Please contact Jessica Walters, who is eager for your suggestions!

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