34 C.F.R. § 668.405

(a) Administrative data. In calculating the D/E rates and earnings premium measure for a program, the Secretary uses student enrollment, disbursement, and program data, or other data the institution is required to report to the Secretary to support its administration of, or participation in, the title IV, HEA programs. In accordance with procedures established by the Secretary, the institution must update or otherwise correct any reported data no later than 60 days after the end of an award year.

(b) Process overview. The Secretary uses the administrative data to—

(1) Compile a list of students who completed each program during the cohort period. The Secretary—

(i) Removes from those lists students who are excluded under § 668.403(e) or § 668.404(c);

(ii) Provides the list to institutions; and

(iii) Allows the institution to correct the information reported by the institution on which the list was based, no later than 60 days after the date the Secretary provides the list to the institution;

(2) Obtain from a Federal agency with earnings data the median annual earnings of the students on each list, as provided in paragraph (c) of this section; and

(3) Calculate the D/E rates and the earnings premium measure and provide them to the institution.

(c) Obtaining earnings data. For each list submitted to the Federal agency with earnings data, the agency returns to the Secretary—

(1) The median annual earnings of the students on the list whom the Federal agency with earnings data has matched to earnings data, in aggregate and not in individual form; and

(2) The number, but not the identities, of students on the list that the Federal agency with earnings data could not match.

(d) Calculating D/E rates and earnings premium measure. (1) If the Federal agency with earnings data includes reports from records of earnings on at least 30 students, the Secretary uses the median annual earnings provided by the Federal agency with earnings data to calculate the D/E rates and earnings premium measure for each program.

(2) If the Federal agency with earnings data reports that it was unable to match one or more of the students on the final list, the Secretary does not include in the calculation of the median loan debt for D/E rates the same number of students with the highest loan debts as the number of students whose earnings the Federal agency with earnings data did not match. For example, if the Federal agency with earnings data is unable to match three students out of 100 students, the Secretary orders by amount the debts of the 100 listed students and excludes from the D/E rates calculation the three largest loan debts.