Quality of Data Reported through the Department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Surveys by Southern New Hampshire University

The objective of our inspection was to determine whether Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) reported verifiable data to IPEDS for the 2021–2022 reporting period. We found that SNHU did not always report verifiable data in the Student Financial Aid, Graduation Rates, and Institutional Characteristic Surveys to IPEDS for the 2021–2022 reporting period because it did not update and implement procedures for collecting, consolidating, assessing the reliability of, and reporting data to IPEDS. Because the data that SNHU reported to IPEDS were not always verifiable, its published net price, graduation rate, and cost of attendance for the 2021–2022 reporting period were unreliable. Prospective students and their parents might have made enrollment decisions based on this unreliable information. We made five recommendations to the Chief Operating Officer for Federal Student Aid and the Commissioner of the Department’s National Center for Education Statistics to address these issues.