Revised 2007: ICN Home Institution Model

Summary

The revised Home Institution Model was approved by the IHETS Board of Directors in October 2007, and supersedes the former agreement. Institutions not currently participating in the model are encouraged to contact IHETS to discuss how participation can help achieve institutional missions. Below is a summary of the agreement, or read the complete text of the 2007 Revised Home Institution Model (PDF).

Introduction

Since 1992, the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education (IPSE) has contributed significantly to the planning and delivery of distance education opportunities throughout Indiana. This success has been due in large part to the considerable strengths among the member institutions and the willingness of the member institutions to work together for the common good of all learners. Working through the Indiana College Network (ICN), student services professionals have worked with the understanding that student support services are vital if distance education students are to have the same high-quality educational experiences as our campus-based students. As each institution has expanded its own technology-based services, ICN has been able to grow in its role as an inter-institutional information and enrollment services clearinghouse.

Home Institution

The home institution is the institution that records enrollment; records course grades and grants credit; provides financial aid services; issues billing and collects (its own) tuition and fees; certifies enrollment; and provides other student services. In short, the home institution is the institution of record for the student, at which the student has applied and has been accepted, whether degree or non-degree status.

Originating Institution

The originating institution provides the instructional origination (via technology) and management for a course. The instructor/professor for such a course is responsible for the content and statewide delivery of the course and will deliver the course to all students enrolled through ICN regardless of home institution. This includes assuring that all students have access to library and other academic support required for a particular course as well as assigning grades and notifying home institutions promptly of apparent withdrawals or last dates of attendance. Thus, the originating institution provides the statewide instruction for a given course on behalf of all the ICN participating institutions which elect to enroll students in that course.

Centralized Enrollment Services

The IPSE recognized early the need to develop the capacity to deliver to distance education students those academic and student support services that will be necessary to student success, as noted above. Most of these services will be provided directly by either the home or originating institution; some may be delivered through local learning centers. The centralized services performed by ICN staff, such as providing general information about distance learning and ICN, information regarding the establishment of a home institution, course schedules, etc., are intended to complement the information and services to be delivered directly from the home institutions to assist students with course enrollments. The ICN staff will not act in the role of academic advisors, nor will they provide financial aid services beyond basic, general information. ICN will provide a single point of contact for students who may be making their first contacts with higher education and distance learning. Beyond that, the ICN staff will offer any help students may request that will facilitate course enrollments and that are consistent with member institution policies and procedures. In short, the staff of ICN will be in a position to act on behalf of, but not in place of, any participating member institution in ways agreeable to both.

Beyond the enrollment service functions noted above, ICN staff will provide overview information about higher and distance education, an informational database of courses and programs, voice and email services for response to inquiries from prospective students as well as institutional staff, and an enrollment database. This enrollment database will be maintained for purposes of providing aggregate data on enrollments through ICN and will in no way replace the official student records to be maintained by the respective home institutions.

ICN Home Institution Model: Financial Aid Consortium Agreement between Member Institutions

This ICN Financial Aid Consortium Agreement will be reviewed every five years or upon changes to the Higher Education Act, whichever comes first, that would necessitate any updates to this agreement.

Policy

Institutions who participate in the Indiana College Network (ICN) program will allow students receiving financial aid to use their award towards the cost of attendance at their institutions. The members of the Indiana College Network (ICN) concurrently adopt the following policy concerning the awarding and disbursing of financial aid funds to students enrolled in courses via the ICN pre-registration process.

For purposes of this agreement, the HOME institution (as defined by ICN) is considered to be the school from which the student will receive his/her degree. The non-degree granting school is considered to be the ORIGINATING (HOST) institution.

• The HOME institution will specify the enrollment period beginning and ending dates for Title IV student aid purposes.

• The HOME institution will define enrollment status (e.g. full-time, half-time, less than half-time) for Title IV student aid purposes.

• Students must be degree-seeking at their HOME institution to be eligible for Title IV student aid.

• The HOME institution will process and disburse all financial aid and process enrollment verifications under Title IV, state and institutional guidelines.

• The HOME institution will report enrollment information to NSLDS and ICHE.

• The HOME institution will establish Cost of Attendance per Title IV guidelines.

• The HOME institution agrees to secure authorizations relating to cash management regulations 34CFR 668.165.

• The HOME institution agrees to include the student on the FISAP.

• The HOME institution agrees to make available required student consumer information, including satisfactory academic progress policy requirements and applicable refund and repayment policy.

• Student financial assistance will be processed by the HOME institution for classes taken at the ORIGINATING institution only if the coursework taken at the ORIGINATING institution is applicable to degree requirements at the HOME institution as determined by the appropriate ICN academic advisor.

• The HOME institution will accept from the ORIGINATING institution the credits and grade for each class a student completes at the ORIGINATING institution.

• The HOME institution will monitor Satisfactory Academic Progress using all courses taken both at the HOME institution and the ORIGINATING institution.

• The HOME institution will define the refund and repayment policy and calculate, if necessary, any Return to Title IV funds calculations.

• The ORIGINATING institution will provide enrollment documentation to the HOME institution prior to the disbursement of any student financial assistance.

• Students may be eligible to receive financial aid for classes that they are enrolled in at the ORIGINATING institution.

• The ORIGINATING institution agrees not to award financial aid nor will they process enrollment verifications.

• The ORIGINATING institution agrees to notify the HOME institution of any changes in enrollment and/or non-attendance.

• The ORIGINATING institution agrees to release the student’s grade to the HOME institution at the completion of the term.

• The ORIGINATING institution will provide a last date of attendance to the HOME institution in cases of official or unofficial withdrawal.

• The ORIGINATING institution agrees to forward information about cost of attendance components to the HOME institution upon request.

 

Cost-Sharing for Cross-Institutional Enrollment Through the ICN Home Institution Model

This cost-sharing agreement will apply to cross-institutional enrollments beginning with academic year 2008-09 (Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Summer 2009). It will be reviewed each winter and either re-endorsed or adjusted to address changing circumstances or unanticipated problems.

The ICN Home Institution Model recognizes two primary areas of expense for campuses participating in cross-institutional enrollment: administrative and instructional. The originating institution bears the full cost of providing the instruction—faculty salary, instructional support, library resources, technology systems and support, etc.—to all students enrolled in a course, regardless of which institutions may serve as those students’ “homes.” The home institution bears the majority (though not all) of the administrative costs associated with advising students, processing enrollment, recording grades and granting credit, awarding and administering financial aid, etc.

Participating institutions recognize, however, that although neither party is profiting financially from these kinds of cross-institutional enrollments, the goal is to help assure that students can make timely progress in their courses of study with access to the full range of educational resources they need. At a broad system level, the institutions hope that apparent financial gains and losses can balance out over the long term for everyone.

Correspondingly, participating institutions have agreed to the following general formula for sharing these service costs, with a goal of providing sufficient consistency to permit clarity for students and staff and to facilitate long-term planning by all.

1. It is agreed that Home Institutions will charge their students their own tuition and fees, according to their published resident or distance-education general service per-credit-hour rates. Institutions which ordinarily use block tuition formulas usually have part-time or elective per-credit-hour rates which can be applied for enrollments through ICN.
2. Home Institutions will forward 90% of the tuition collected (but not including special-purpose fees) up to 100% of the originating institution’s published resident or distance-education general service per-credit-hour rates plus any technology fee or distance education fee charged to distance students at the Originating Institution. In no case will the Home Institution forward more than 90% of its tuition collected.
3. It is the responsibility of the Originating Institution to generate an invoice to the Home Institution for payment of cross-registered students during a particular semester.
4. It is the student’s responsibility to drop or withdraw from a course through the Home Institution and the responsibility of the Originating Institution to notify the Home Institution of the last date of attendance. Since the Home Institution is responsible for collecting tuition and dealing with payments, the Home Institution’s policies and schedules will prevail regarding refunds due to students and any amount to be returned from the Originating Institution to the Home Institution if payment has already been forwarded.
5. Where applicable, the Originating Institution will receive credit for the enrollment through the Commission for Higher Education for purposes of Indiana enrollment adjustment funding.

Approved by the IHETS Board of Directors October 2007