Department of Education November 18, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Secretary is expanding the Competency-Based Education experiment, which was announced in a previous Federal Register notice, to provide additional flexibility in how institutions provide Federal student aid to students who are enrolled in competency-based education programs, including providing waivers and modifications to statutory and regulatory requirements designed to support competency-based education programs that charge a flat fee for a period of time rather than charging by course or by competency. The expansion of the Competency-Based Education experiment provides two additional sets of waivers that are available to both institutions currently approved for the experiment and institutions that may be approved based on their submission of a letter of interest. These sets of waivers are described in this notice below, under ``The Experiment.'' In a Federal Register notice published on July 31, 2014, the Secretary invited postsecondary educational institutions (institutions) that participate in the student financial assistance programs authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), to apply to participate in institutionally-based experiments, including the Competency-Based Education experiment, under the Experimental Sites Initiative (ESI).