Policy 210.13 Recruitment and Enrollment

Owner:  Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer

1. Scope and Purpose

   University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) strives to be an institution of high integrity and is committed to ensuring that recruitment and enrollment activities conducted at the university promote such an environment.  UMGC adopts this policy to ensure compliance with federal laws and regulations.  All UMGC divisions, departments, schools, officials, faculty, and staff are subject to and must comply with this policy.

   Federal law, regulations, and the Department of Defense (DoD) Voluntary Education Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) prohibit UMGC from providing incentive compensation to employees and third parties based, in any part, on their success in securing student enrollments or awarding Title IV, HEA program funds.

2. Definitions

   1. A "commission, bonus, or other incentive payment" means a sum of money or something of value, other than a fixed salary or wages, paid to or given to a person or an entity for services rendered.

   2. "Securing enrollments or the award of financial aid" means activities that a person or entity engages in at any point in time through completion of an educational program for the purpose of the admission or matriculation of students for any period of time or the award of financial aid to students.

      These activities include contact in any form with a prospective student, such as, but not limited to - contact through preadmission or advising activities, scheduling an appointment to visit the enrollment office or any other office of the institution, attendance at such an appointment, or involvement in a prospective student's signing of an enrollment agreement or financial aid application.

      These activities do not include making a payment to a third party for the provision of student contact information for prospective students provided that such payment is not based on:  (1) any additional conduct or action by the third party or the prospective students, such as participation in preadmission or advising activities, scheduling an appointment to visit the enrollment office or any other office of the institution or attendance at such an appointment, or the signing, or being involved in the signing, of a prospective student's enrollment agreement or financial aid application; or (2) the number of students (calculated at any point in time of an educational program) who apply for enrollment, are awarded financial aid, or are enrolled for any period of time, including through completion of an educational program.

   3. "Entity or person engaged in any student recruitment or admission activity or in making decisions about the award of financial aid"  means:  (1) with respect to an entity engaged in any student recruitment or admission activity or in making decisions about the award of financial aid, any institution or organization that undertakes the recruiting or the admitting of students or that makes decisions about and awards Title IV, HEA program funds; and (2) With respect to a person engaged in any student recruitment or admission activity or in making decisions about the award of financial aid, any employee who undertakes recruiting or admitting of students or who makes decisions about and awards Title IV, HEA program funds, and any higher level employee with responsibility for recruitment or admission of students, or making decisions about awarding Title IV, HEA program funds.

   4. "Enrollment"  means the admission or matriculation of a student into an eligible institution.

   5. An "inducement"  means any gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, transportation, lodging, meals, or other item have a monetary value or more than a de minimis amount to any individual, entity, or its agents including third party lead generators or marketing forms.

3. Responsibilities

   In accordance with federal laws, regulations, and the Department of Defense (DoD) Voluntary Education Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), UMGC prohibits the payment of any commission, bonus, inducement, or other incentive payment based in any part, directly or indirectly, upon success in securing enrollments or awarding financial aid to any persons or entities, engaged in any student recruiting, admission activities, decision-making regarding the award of Title IV, HEA program funds.  This prohibition shall apply to UMGC itself as well as any third party contractors.

   UMGC employees and third party contractors shall refrain from using high-pressure recruitment tactics, such as making multiple (three or more) unsolicited contacts by phone, email, or in-person.  UMGC shall also refrain from engaging in same-day recruitment and registration for the purpose of securing military enrollments.