A newly compiled analysis by the U.S. Department of Education and obtained by "The Chronicle" shows that 114 private nonprofit degree-granting colleges were in such fragile financial condition at the end of their last fiscal year that they failed the department's financial-responsibility test. Colleges that fail the test are subject to extra…

The University of San Francisco School of Law is one of at least a dozen law schools in the United States where students represent small investors facing big headaches, often because their brokers were more interested in maximizing their own commissions than in giving sound advice. Supervised by law professors, teams of students file motions,…

Hundreds of financial conflicts of interest among university researchers have not been investigated by the National Institutes of Health, an agency that should police them, according to a new audit report. The report, by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services--NIH's parent agency--describes a dysfunctional system that…

Congress and other watchdogs have grilled colleges in recent years for what some regard as the excessive pay of their chief executives. This article reports that a "Chronicle" analysis has found that presidents and chancellors are a minority of the highest-compensated college employees. Chief executives accounted for only 11 out of 88…

Nearly 400 colleges across the United States are about to be asked to disclose intimate financial details of their operations to the Internal Revenue Service. This article reports on a highly detailed financial questionnaire designed by the IRS for the first phase of its Colleges and Universities Compliance Project, which is part of a continuing…

This article discusses exclusive deals between colleges and student-loan providers and the U.S. Education Department's initial move to solve the conflict. The Higher Education Act, which governs most federal student-aid programs, prohibits colleges from requiring their students to borrow from a specific bank or student-loan company. The law does…

Recent federal audits of research project overhead charges at 13 universities uncovered over $13 million in inappropriate items. Proposals for reform include a federal upper limit on overhead rates and a fixed institutional overhead rate charged to any sponsor. Concern continues over repayment to the government of previous wrongful collections by…

Many graduate students receiving stipends for research or teaching are being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. The situation is puzzling and angering administrators because the stipends have previously been considered tax-exempt. (MSE)

In almost half of the Department of Education's biennial audits of colleges receiving federal financial aid, institutions are found to have made mistakes in aid distribution, and each year the department asks colleges to return $25-million in aid money. Better oversight methods are urged. (MSE)

The Internal Revenue Service is finding that a number of colleges have failed to withhold proper amounts of tax from employees, evaded required payments of unrelated-business income tax, allowed students to avoid paying certain Social Security taxes, and allowed foreign students to avoid tax withholding on most income. (MSE)

The Internal Revenue Service has acknowledged that audits of graduate students receiving stipends were based on inconsistent interpretations of tax law but deny any policy to increase monitoring of graduate students' tax returns. (MSE)

The House Postsecondary Education Subcommittee called hearings to give higher education officials a chance to respond to accusations that colleges are greedy and spend as much as they can. Program duplication, tax breaks for parents, tuition increases, and a call for college audits are discussed. (MLW)

College students are complaining that Congress has made it too difficult to demonstrate financial independence to qualify for federal financial aid. Legislation in 1992 tightened the policy on financial independence to prevent affluent students from cheating the system. Colleges are reluctant to step in for fear of state-conducted audits of…

Proposed National Collegiate Athletic Association rules changes concern Presidents' Commission grouping, academic standards and transfer, financial aid, amateurism, championships and extra events, drug testing, administrative regulation, financial audits, coaches' outside compensation, voting privileges, membership and classification, enforcement,…