Originator: Associate Vice President, Financial Aid
Subject: Federal Financial Aid Return of Title IV Funds Policy
Title IV funds are awarded to a student under the assumption that the student will attend school for the entire period for which the aid is awarded. Pursuant to federal regulation 34 CFR 668.22, the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) must perform a Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4) calculation when a student receiving Title IV funds does not attend for the entire period. The requirement to perform a calculation for a Title IV recipient is triggered by any of the following: course cancellations, disenrollment, cease participation and receives a Failure Due to Non-attendance (FN) grade, withdraws, is expelled, or drops last course on or before the 60 percent attendance point for term enrollment scenario. A Title IV recipient who certifies intent to return later within the same term after withdrawing or dropping will not require a calculation unless the student does not return as scheduled. If an R2T4 calculation is required, any unearned funds are returned to the Title IV program(s). This can result in a balance owed to UMGC, and the student is responsible for repaying the outstanding debt, if the debt goes unpaid it will be transferred to the State Central Collections Unit (SCCU).
Title IV Recipient: a student who is awarded aid under one or more of the following programs: Federal Unsubsidized Direct Stafford Loan (other than PLUS loans), Federal Subsidized Direct Stafford Loan, Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan, Federal Direct PLUS Loan (parent), Federal Pell Grant, Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, Iraq Afghanistan Service Grant.
Term: Fall, Winter, Spring, or Summer
Session/Module: a course that does not span the entire length of a term.
Period of enrollment: the combination of sessions a student is enrolled in during a term.
Exclusions from Return of Title IV Funds: includes Federal Work Study, alternative loans, UMGC, state, and private grants/scholarships.
Drop: when a student rescinds enrollment in course(s) either before the course(s) has begun or during the drop period.
Withdrawn: when a student either formally ends enrollment in course(s) after the drop period, stops participating, receives a F grade with no participation or receives a Failure due to Non-Attendance (FN) grade. This also includes the above actions resulting in enrollment that is not applicable to a student's active degree or certificate program.
Date of determination: the date of determination that a student withdrew.
Earned Aid: Title IV funds that a student is entitled to keep based on the percentage of the term that was completed prior to withdrawal. Earned aid is determined based on a pro rata schedule that is set by the Department of Education.
Post-Withdrawal Disbursement (PWD): aid that is disbursed to a student after withdrawing from course(s) because the student earned more aid than was disbursed prior to withdrawal.
Last Date of Participation (LDP): the last date of academically related activity is used as the withdrawal date for courses that are dropped or receive an FN grade. Examples of academically related activity include but are not limited to attending a face-to-face course session, submitting an assignment or quiz, participating in the discussion area in an online course, or interacting with a faculty member about the subject studied in the course. Academically related activity does not include logging into an online classroom or participating in academic advisement.
NOTE: The return to Title IV funds policy is separate from the University’s tuition and fee refund policy
Current Policy | Prior Policy | |
Policy Number | 220.60 | 220.60 |
Date | 12/14/22 | 3/31/17 |