Technology

Our team of financial aid professionals has spent decades working in all aspects of financial aid and higher education administration. We help financial aid offices at public and private colleges and universities and proprietary schools use technology  to improve workflow processes, to better utilize existing technology and to implement new software. Here are some of our recent blog posts related to financial aid technology trends.

Please visit our technology solutions page our contact our compliance experts to learn more about how HEAG can assist your school.

June 26, 2018

The HEAG Spring/Summer Newsletter is now available. In this issue: Meet HEAG’s New Executive Director – Joanne Dashiell Good News Regarding Student Loans for Those Attending Community College The Life of a Financial Aid Consultant Consumer Financial Protection …

April 13, 2018

While we have been writing about and following the Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization for quite some time, the battle has moved to the social media arena. Led by NASFAA along with some of the regional financial aid professional organizations, those wor …

January 19, 2018

In case you missed it, here are some of our most popular blog posts from 2017 for college and university financial aid offices. HEAG’s financial aid consultants often write on issues related to Title IV compliance, verification, file review and processing supp …

November 27, 2017

HEAG’s Fall Newsletter is now online. It includes articles for financial aid professionals on: HEAG’s Consultants Share What They’re Thankful for HEAG ~ Growing to Serve You TechTalk: 2018-2019 FAFSA Changes: IRS Tax Data and Securing Personal Information Fede …

October 19, 2017

The future is here for communicating with college students and the current Millennial generation is leading the way, with 98% of them now owning a smartphone.  1 in 5 Americans rely solely on data plans from their smartphone and not other internet access with …

September 21, 2017

In the last few years, it seems data breaches have been become common place in our country. Back in 2013, giant retailer Target was hacked, affecting an estimated 70 million consumers. This caused many Americans to have their banks/credit card companies issue …

August 23, 2017

HEAG’s Summer Newsletter is now online. It includes articles for financial aid professionals on: Summer Reading and the Dream Act New Year-Round Pell: How It’s Different This Time Around Student Loan Servicers, And Then There Was One Are You Using Social Media …

July 20, 2017

The Higher Education Assistance Group’s blog includes more than 200 articles on financial aid topics prepared by the Group’s expert financial aid consultants and systems analysts. Search by topic: Compliance Federal Student Aid Programs Technology File Review …

May 22, 2017

Technology in financial aid affects several metrics within your office. It can affect touches of a student’s file, it can affect time to complete verification, but it can also affect a student’s ability and ease with which they can complete the financial aid p …

May 18, 2017

As I previously mentioned, customer service is in the eye of the beholder. That means as an employee, you may believe you provided great service to a student but the student may believe differently. Each person involved in an interaction could have a subjectiv …

May 2, 2017

On Tuesday, January 31st, 2017, the Higher Education Assistance Group held their annual training session for consultants and directors. It was an informative day with topics ranging from changes to the 2017-18 verification process to quality assurance and clie …

April 19, 2017

HEAG’s Spring 2017 Newsletter for financial aid professionals is here! This issue includes: HEAG’s Consultants Share Their Favorite Commencement Memories HEAG ~ Growing to Serve You HEAG’s Annual Staff Training 7 Principles of Great Service Gainful Employment …

February 23, 2017

In part one of this series, I talked about asking your customers, the students, for feedback on the level of service you were providing. In part two, I’ll give some ideas to help you improve your customer service levels. How do you get started improving the se …

February 16, 2017

Ask the Students Instinctively, you may want to answer “yes” to that question. You are a college president, supervisor, or director that wants your students to be taken care of. You have mentioned it several times in staff meetings. You send email reminders to …

January 27, 2017

  Unfortunately, that isn’t a joke. October 1st has passed and 2017/2018 FAFSAs are already waiting in your SAIG mailbox! How could you possibly start your new year roll when we aren’t even in the new year? Welcome to the post prior-prior year financial a …

November 10, 2016

We are pleased to announce the following additions to our consultant staff…   Joshua Bordis, a member of the HEAG team since 2014, has now been appointed to the position of Senior Financial Aid Consultant/ Systems Analyst with HEAG. He has an expertise in …

October 31, 2016

HEAG’s Fall 2016 Newsletter is here. This issue includes: HEAG ~ Growing to Serve You Tech Talk Corner – 2017/2018 Has Begun! Gainful Employment Debt-to-Earnings – An In-Depth Look HEAG ~ Recent and Upcoming events Upcoming Changes to 2017-18 Verification Proc …

August 24, 2016

It wasn’t the numbers in the blog post, “FAFSA Non-Filers: What the Research Says,” by Paula Acevedeo on the National College Access Network¹ that caught
 our attention, it was the experiments conducted by ideas42. With at least 2 million students failing to c …

July 21, 2016

HEAG’s quarterly Newsletter reports on developments in the financial aid industry. Topics include administering Title IV aid efficiently and effectively, maintaining compliance, file review and verification, staffing solutions and technology tools. The Summer …

May 24, 2016

  Typically, we wouldn’t even be thinking about a future award year when the upcoming one hasn’t even begun yet.  But with the major changes surrounding the release of the 17-18 FAFSA in October of this year along with prior-prior year income being utiliz …

May 9, 2016

Has someone in your office ever misfiled a W-2 in another student’s file? It can have a snowball effect. Starting as an innocent mistake, it consumes fruitless hours of searching through files, then requires an apologetic phone call to an unhappy parent and de …

April 21, 2016

Picture this. It’s right before the first week of fall classes and you have prepped staff as much as possible for the incoming deluge of students to the campus. During their visit, they will be doing everything from registering for classes, moving into dorms a …

December 5, 2015

Posted December 5th, 2014 In the spring of 2015, all federal student aid websites, including FAFSA on the web, NSLDS student access and StudentLoans.gov, will no longer utilize the PIN for login, a method that has been in place for over a decade. In its place, …

October 16, 2015

Growing to Better Serve You. As a full-service financial aid and higher education consulting firm, HEAG is always looking for ways to better serve our schools throughout the US. With this positive growth in mind, we are proud to introduce the newest member of …

September 14, 2015

Posted:  September 4, 2015 By:  Colleen King, Executive Director, HEAG With the recent regulations governing Gainful Employment (GE) reporting and disclosure requirements taking effect on July 31st, 2015, many schools thought to be in compliance are now being …

May 26, 2015

Posted:  May 11, 2015 Growing to Better Serve You. Sarah Fevig Joins HEAG. As a full-service financial aid and higher education consulting firm, HEAG is always looking for ways to better serve our schools throughout the US. With this positive growth in mind, w …

November 12, 2014

Posted: November 12, 2014 Your Student Information System (SIS) working efficiently with your Financial Aid Management System is one of the key components to ensuring that you are staying compliant with the Department of Education in all aspects, including cha …

December 11, 2013

Posted:  December 11, 2013 Per the Electronic Announcement posted on October 29, 2013, all designated Primary Destination Point Administrators (DPA) must actively confirm all Electronic Services’ user accounts.  If active confirmation is not provided for each …

April 22, 2013

Posted Date: April 18, 2013 Author: Pamela Eliadis, Service Director, System Operations & Aid Delivery Management, Federal Student Aid William Leith, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid Subject: COD WEB SITE ACCESS – Action Required f …

March 1, 2013

On March 1, 2013, we will send the message class table “MESSAGTB” via the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) to all user mailboxes. The Edconnect transmission software will automatically request, download, and import this new message class table with a user’s …

January 22, 2013

For all Banner users, please be advised that there was a defect prohibiting administrators from calculating the needs analysis correctly for 1314 ISIRs.  According to Mark Kichline, Product Owner and Business Analyst, the patch to correct this defect was relea …

January 16, 2013

By: Pamela Eliadis, Service Director, System Operations & Aid Delivery Management, Federal Student Aid January 11, 2013 We are pleased to announce the availability of an updated NSLDS Enrollment Reporting Guide, a comprehensive document containing step-by- …

January 10, 2013

On Thursday, January 10, 2013, Ellucian delivered a major point release that will allow colleges and universities to start loading 2013-2014 Free Application for Federal Student Aid and start awarding the Fall 2013 class.  The release includes: 2013-2014 EDE D …

December 31, 2012

Posted Date: December 20, 2012 Author: William Leith, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid Subject: REMINDER – Keep School Contact Information Current in COD System We remind schools and third party servicers that contact information in th …

December 18, 2012

Is your institution using a vendor or a home-grown software to manage your endowed scholarship selection, awarding and/or record-keeping?  What kind of programs and vendors are you using? Share with us!

December 13, 2012

We are pleased to announce the posting of the updated 2013-2014 Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) Technical Reference. Contact Information If you have questions about this material, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/474-7268 for Grants or …

December 7, 2012

With the end of 2012 quickly approaching, the TFA token rollout is almost complete.  Some schools are still waiting to register their tokens for the first time, while others have their tokens, but are unsure of what to do if they need to be reassigned.  Since …

October 24, 2012

With the 13-14 cycle slowly getting underway, it is important to make sure that you, and those who support Banner, understand some of the new and existing features in Banner. Since technology support seems to be lacking and financial resources are slim, it is …

November 9, 2011

SunGard Higher Education has released the “2012-2013 Early Release for Banner Financial Aid, 8.12.1”. November is a great time to start updating and testing your systems for January 1st.  Financial aid departments in November tend to have less student traffic, …

September 12, 2011

For those schools new to Direct Loans, reconciliation is a federal requirement and is required of all DL participants. On a monthly basis, schools must ensure that not only do their internal records match (between the FAO and the Business Office), but that the …