Sept 29 -- The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Department of Education (ED), invites comments to OMB by October 30. 2023 regarding the proposed 2023-24 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:24) Full-Scale Study-Student Data Collection and Student Records.
This request is to conduct the 2023–24 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:24) Full-Scale Student Data and Student Records Collections. This study is being conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), part of the U.S. Department of Education. This submission covers materials and procedures related to institution sampling, enrollment list collection, and matching to administrative data files as part of the NPSAS:24 data collection. The materials and procedures are based on those developed for previous institution-based data collections, including the 2019–20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20) [OMB #1850–0666 v.23], and the 2017–18 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study Administrative Collection (NPSAS:18–AC) [1850–0666 v.21]. The first NPSAS was implemented by NCES during the 1986–87 academic year to meet the need for national data about significant financial aid issues.
Since 1987, NPSAS has been fielded every 2 to 4 years, most recently during the 2019–20 academic year (NPSAS:20). NPSAS:24 will be nationally-representative. The NPSAS:24 sample size will include about 2,000 institutions from which will be sampled 137,000 nationally representative undergraduate and 25,000 nationally representative graduate students who will be asked to complete a survey and for whom we will collect student records and administrative data. Also, NPSAS:24 is scheduled to serve as the base year for the 2024 cohort of the Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) Longitudinal Study, but no funding is available to field follow-up surveys. In the event Congress appropriates additional funds, the NPSAS:24 sampling design will include a nationally representative sample of students who will complete requirements for the bachelor's degree during the NPSAS year (i.e., completed at some point between July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024). Subsets of questions in the student survey will focus on describing aspects of the experience of students in their last year of postsecondary education, including student debt, education experiences, and preparation activities for those planning to teach at the preK through 12th grade level.
Previous submissions were designed to adequately justify the need for and overall practical utility of the full study, presenting the overarching plan for all phases of the data collection and providing as much detail about the measures to be used as is available at the time of this submission. As part of the completed field test, NCES published a notice in the Federal Register allowing first a 60- and then a 30-day public comment period. Field test materials, procedures, and results have informed this request for clearance for the full-scale study. For this full-scale study, NCES first published a notice in the Federal Register allowing an additional 30-day public comment period on the final details of the NPSAS:24 full-scale study Institution Contacting and List Collection, which was approved in September 2023 (OMB# 1850–0666 v.35). NCES is now submitting a separate clearance package covering the student data collection, including the student record data abstraction and student surveys, for an additional 30-day public comment period.
This submission describes the planned sampling, recruitment, and data collection procedures, and includes
-- a list of individuals on the NPSAS:24 Technical Review Panel (TRP) (appendix A);
-- a list of organizations and associations endorsing and supporting NPSAS:24 (appendix B; unchanged);
-- a description of the confidentiality procedures in place for the administrative record matching (appendix C; carried over);
-- contacting materials for institution staff providing enrollment lists with translations (appendix D1; carried over) and for student records (appendix D2);
-- a summary of usability testing with institution staff (appendix E; carried over);
-- the student records instrument (appendix F);
-- the sample member focus group (appendix G) and Spanish-language cognitive testing (appendix H) reports;
-- results of the NPSAS:24 field test incentive experiment (appendix I);
-- student data collection materials (appendix J); and
-- the student survey instrument (appendix K).
The fundamental purpose of NPSAS is to create a research data set that brings together information about a variety of programs for a large sample of undergraduate and graduate students. NPSAS provides the data for comprehensive descriptions of the undergraduate and graduate student populations in terms of their demographic characteristics, academic programs, types of institutions attended, attendance patterns, and employment. Demographic and enrollment data establish the appropriate context that allows researchers and policy analysts to address basic issues about postsecondary affordability and the recipients of student financial assistance. These results are presented in at least one First Look report.
Ultimately, data collected via NPSAS:24 will make important contributions to studies of postsecondary education policy at the federal, state, and sector levels. The data can be used to calculate statistics through DataLab, a web-based software application available to the public at
https://nces.ed.gov/datalab, and to qualified researchers through the IES restricted-use data licensing program (
A second purpose of NPSAS is to gather base-year data on a subset of students who will complete requirements for a bachelor’s degree during the NPSAS year. Although the first follow-up, B&B:24/25 has not been exercised by NCES, NPSAS:24 will sample 4th and 5th year students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs to establish the base year cohort for the B&B, to allow for potential follow-up surveys in the future if funding becomes available. A section of the student survey will capture information about students’ graduate school and career plans to support analysis of graduate education and employment outcomes, with a special emphasis on students considering and pursuing careers in elementary and secondary teaching. In addition, the base year survey will include some items typically included in the first B&B follow-up survey.
Many of the important questions that NPSAS:24 aims to address are the same as in the past years. College cost increases, net price levels, grants, and increases in student loan debt will continue to be central issues. The NPSAS:24 data will be used to address policy issues related to changes in federal financial aid programs resulting from the anticipated reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Following are some of the primary research and policy issues that could be addressed using NPSAS:24 data:
(1) Student demographics:
What is the distribution of student enrollment among types of institutions by gender, race/ethnicity, age, dependency, and income?
What types of institutions are serving the largest proportions of low-income, nontraditional, and ethnic minority students?
What proportion of undergraduates are first-generation college students, and what types of institutions are they attending?
What proportion of students are immigrants or children of immigrants, and what types of institutions are they attending?
What proportion of students enrolled in postsecondary education are active military or veterans, and what types of institutions do they attend?
(2) Academic preparation and programs:
What proportion of college students have taken remedial courses?
What types of students are enrolled in vocational certificate, associate’s degree, and bachelor’s degree programs, and what are their fields of study?
(3) Financial aid:
What proportion of students needs financial aid, and what is the average amount of need by income?
What proportion of students has remaining need beyond what they receive in financial aid, and what is the average amount of unmet need?
What proportion of students receives federal Pell grants, and where do they attend college?
What proportion of students is receiving aid from states, institutions, employers, and private sources, and what is the average amount received?
What proportion of students is receiving need-based or merit-based aid?
How does the amount and type of aid vary by dependency status and income level?
What is the ratio of federal to nonfederal aid at various types of institutions?
What is the ratio of grants to loans at various types of institutions?
What proportion of students receives veterans and other Department of Defense benefits, and how much do they receive?
How has the incidence and average amount of veterans’ benefits changed since the enactment of the Post-9/11 GI Bill (P.L. 110-252)?
How has the number and proportion of nonveterans receiving veterans’ benefits as dependents of veterans changed since enactment of the Post-9/11 GI Bill (P.L. 110-252)?
What types of institutions enroll the highest proportions of active-duty military personnel, veterans, and recipients of veterans’ benefits?
(4) Price of attendance:
What are the differences in the average tuition and total price of attendance by type of institution and among students by dependency, income, and full-time or part-time attendance status?
What is the average net price of attendance (student budget minus financial aid) at various income levels at different types of institutions?
(5) Student borrowing:
What are the differences in the percentage of students borrowing and the average amounts borrowed through the federal student loan programs by institution type, attendance status, class level, and income?
What proportion of students borrows the maximum Direct (Stafford) Loan amounts?
What is the difference in the proportion of students receiving subsidized or unsubsidized Direct (Stafford) Loans by dependency and income level?
What proportion of graduate students borrows and at what rate do they use Graduate PLUS loans to fund their education?
What is the average cumulative debt of students by class level, especially among graduating college seniors?
What is the average cumulative debt of graduate students and what portion of that debt was incurred in graduate school?
What proportion of students borrows private loans, in what amount, and how does this borrowing vary by institution type?
(6) Student employment:
What proportion of students engages in paid work while enrolled and what are the average hours per week they work?
What is the average amount earned from work while enrolled?
What proportion of students is employed by their institution in work-study and graduate assistantships as compared with other types of employment?
(7) Sources of funds:
What types of financial support are dependent students receiving from their parents?
Answers to these and other questions are vital if policymakers at the local, state, and national levels are to respond adequately to the changing environment of postsecondary education. Since inception, the NPSAS, BPS, and B&B series have resulted in numerous NCES publications addressing these issues. These reports can be found at:
NCES submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202309-1850-009 Click IC List for information collection instrument, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this webpage.
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at