Higher Education Institutional Aid

To help eligible colleges and universities to strengthen their management and fiscal operations and to assist such institutions to plan, develop, or implement activities including endowment building to strengthen the academic quality of their institu

The purpose of Aid for Institutional Development funding is to help eligible colleges and universities to strengthen their management and fiscal operations and to assist such institutions to plan, develop, or implement activities including endowment building to strengthen the academic quality of their institutions.

An institution of higher education (IHE) that qualifies as eligible using criteria as specified in the regulations. Under Part A, specific and basic requirements as stated in the program regulations must be met. Eligible applicants include institutions that have: (1) A low average per full-time equivalent (FTE) educational and general expenditures; (2) a substantial percentage of students having Pell Grants or other Federal need-based financial aid. However, a waiver of the low educational and general expenditure requirement and the needy student enrollment requirement may be granted to institutions meeting the criteria specified in the existing regulations. Under Part B HBCUs, historically Black institutions that were established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of African Americans are eligible. A listing of those institutions is published in program regulations; these HBCUs are also eligible under the Endowment Challenge Grant Program. Institutions eligible for PBI program grants are defined in Title III Section 318(b) of the HEA. Institutions eligible for HBGI program grants are specified in Title III Section 326(e)(1) of the HEA. Under the Title V programs, an HSI is defined as an institution that has an enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic as specified in Section 502 of the HEA.

Applicant institutions of higher education, including those in the territories and possessions that meet statutory eligibility requirements will benefit.

Eligible institutions may apply under Part A, Part B or Part F of Title III of the HEA, or Title V of the HEA. Title III Part A includes Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP), American Indian Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving (ANNH) institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving Institutions (AANAPISI), Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Title III Part B includes the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) program and the Historically Black Graduate Institutions (HBGIs) program. Title III Part A provides funds to eligible institutions to plan, develop, and implement activities for development of faculty, fund, and administrative management, and improvement of academic programs, acquisition of equipment for use in strengthening academic programs and institutional management, and joint use of facilities such as libraries, laboratories, and student services. Title III Part B provides funds to undergraduate HBCUs and graduate HBGIs. Funds may be used for purchase, rental, or lease of scientific equipment; construction, maintenance, renovation, improvement in classroom, library and other instructional facilities; support of faculty exchanges and fellowships; academic instruction in disciplines in which African Americans are underrepresented, purchase of library books, periodicals, and other educational materials; tutoring, counseling, and student services; funds and administrative management; acquisition of equipment for use in funds management; endowment funds; and joint use of facilities. Title V Part A, Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) program provides funds to eligible HSIs for activities such as: faculty development; funds and administrative management; development and improvement of academic programs; endowment funds; curriculum development; scientific or laboratory equipment for teaching; construction or renovation of instructional facilities; joint use of facilities; academic tutoring; counseling programs; student support services, purchase of educational materials; articulation agreements; creating facilities for distance learning technologies; teacher education programs; K-12 community outreach programs; and the expansion of graduate and professional programs. Title V Part B, Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans program provides funds to eligible HSIs for activities such as: purchase or rental of scientific or laboratory equipment; construction or renovation of instructional facilities; purchase of educational materials; support for low-income postbaccalaureate students; support of academic instruction and faculty and curricular development; creating facilities for distance learning technologies; and collaboration with other institutions of higher education to expand postbaccalaureate offerings. Title III, Part F, Section 371 authorizes funds for Hispanic-serving Institutions STEM and Articulation Programs to support the kinds of activities being supported under the existing Title V program, except that priority is given for applications that propose to increase the number of Hispanic and other low-income students attaining degrees in fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to applications that propose to develop model transfer and articulation agreements between the 2-year and 4-year HSIs in such fields. Funds provided for Title III and Title V may not be used for activities other than those in an approved application, activities that are inconsistent with any applicable State plan of higher education or State plan for desegregation, a school or department of divinity or any religious worship or sectarian activity; general operating and maintenance expenses; indirect costs; or supplanting of other funds available to the institution.

Under the SIP, TCCUs, ANNH, AANAPISI and HSIs, planning grants are for a period of up to 1 year, individual development grants are for a period of 5 years.

See above.

(a) Under Title III and Title V, the Department appoints review panels to provide comments and recommend ratings for the applications. The reviewers numerically rate each application assigned and provide the Secretary with comments on each. Criteria are published in the Federal Register along with the point value for each criterion. (b) Under TCCUs, HBCUs, HBGIs, and PBIs, funds are allocated based on a statute-driven formula. For Strengthening TCCUs, applicants are limited to tribal colleges and universities, including institutions qualifying for funding under the Tribally Controlled College or University Assistance Act of 1978 or the Navajo Community College Assistance Act of 1978, or cited in section 532 of the Equity in Educational Land Grant Status Act of 1994. To be eligible to receive a grant under the Strengthening HBCUs program, an institution must be designated by the Secretary of Education as a Historically Black College or University. HBGIs receiving discretionary grants are specified in the program statute. To be eligible to receive a grant under the Strengthening PBIs program, an institution must have an enrollment of undergraduate students that is at least 40 percent Black American students; that is at least 1,000 undergraduate students of which not less than 50 percent of the undergraduate students enrolled at the institution are low-income individuals or first-generation college students (as that term is defined in Section 402A(g)); and of which not less than 50 percent of the undergraduate students are enrolled in an educational program leading to a bachelor's or associate's degree that the institution is licensed to award by the State in which the institution is located.

Title III Part A applicants in the SIP, ANNH, AANAPISI, and NASNTI programs and Title V applications are evaluated by external reviewers who are experts in postsecondary education. The Department makes final awards based primarily on the scores assigned to the applications by the external reviewers and the recommendations submitted by the staff of the Institutional Service, Office of Postsecondary Education at the Department of Education. Title III applicants in the TCCUs, PBIs, HBCUs, and HBGIs programs make final awards based on a statutory formula.

Approximately six months.

Under the SIP, priority is given to applicants who are not already receiving a grant. Institutions that received a 5-year individual development grant are not eligible to receive an additional grant until 2 years after the date on which the 5-year terminates. After fulfilling the wait-out requirement, institutions applying for another grant under the SIP must reapply for eligibility.