Bethel University Return of Title IV Funds Policy

Title IV funds are awarded to a student under the assumption that the student will attend school for the entire period for which the assistance is awarded. When a student withdraws from Bethel, the student may no longer be eligible for the full amount of Title IV funds that the student was originally scheduled to receive.

The financial aid office is required to calculate the amount of earned Title IV funds for students who withdraw, drop, are dismissed, or fail to return from a leave of absence taken prior to the completion of the payment period. Students will earn 100% of Title IV funds after completing 60% or more of the payment period.

If the student leaves the university prior to completing 60% of a payment period, the financial aid office calculates the amount of earned Title IV funds. Any unearned Title IV funds must be returned to the appropriate federal program. This calculation is based on the following steps:

1. Any Title IV aid for which the student is eligible is determined as either “disbursed” or “could have been disbursed”. Disbursed aid is aid that has posted to the student’s account on or before the date the student withdrew; aid that could have been disbursed is aid that the student was eligible to receive as of the date the student withdrew but had not yet been posted to the student’s account.
2. The percentage of Title IV aid earned is determined by counting the number of calendar days the student attended within the payment period and dividing it by the total number of calendar days within the payment period. (Any break of five calendar days or more is not counted in the numerator or denominator and is excluded from the calculation.) The percentage of the payment period completed is equal to the percentage of Title IV aid earned.
3. The amount of Title IV aid earned by the student is determined by multiplying the percentage of Title IV aid earned by the total amount of Title IV aid that disbursed or could have been disbursed.
4. The amount of earned Title IV aid is compared to the total amount of Title IV aid that was disbursed. If the earned aid is greater than disbursed aid, the student is eligible for a post-withdrawal disbursement (see below). If the earned aid is less than the disbursed aid, then funds must be returned to the appropriate federal program. If the amounts are equal, then no further action is necessary.
5. The school is responsible for returning the amount of unearned Title IV aid that is equal to or lesser than the amount of unearned charges. (Unearned charges are determined by multiplying institutional charges by the percentage of unearned Title IV aid.)
6. If a Title IV credit balance occurs after the R2T4 calculations are completed, the credit balance will be paid to the student (or borrower) as soon as possible but no later than 14 calendar days after the date of determination of the student’s withdraw.

Bethel University must return the amount of Title IV funds for which it is responsible no later than 45 calendar days after the date of the determination of the date of the student’s withdrawal.

Unearned Title IV financial aid will be returned to the appropriate programs in the order listed below. The amount of unearned Title IV aid that must be returned by the school is repaid to various programs from which the funds were awarded. The repayment is allocated, using the following fixed priority:

1. Unsubsidized Direct Loan
2. Subsidized Direct Loan
3. Direct PLUS Loan
4. Pell Grant
5. FSEOG
6. TEACH Grant
7. Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant

If the Title IV portion of the refund is large enough, the entire amount of an award received is first returned to the highest priority program from which an award was made. The full amounts are similarly returned.

Unearned Title IV aid that has been disbursed to the student and exceeds the amount the school is required to return, must be repaid by the student. If the funds are the result of a Title IV Direct loan, the student or borrower can repay the unearned funds according to the terms of the borrower’s promissory note. If any unearned funds remain for the student to return, beyond the amount of the disbursed Title IV Direct loans, the remaining unearned funds are grant funds. For these funds, the student is eligible to receive grant protection of 50%. The total Title IV grant funds for the student (disbursed and could have been disbursed) are multiplied by 50%; this amount is subtracted from the amount of Title IV grant funds for the student to return. Any remaining amount for the student to return will be identified as an overpayment. A student must repay the overpayment or make satisfactory arrangements to repay it, in order to retain eligibility for Title IV funds. The student should contact Bethel to discuss options for the resolution of an overpayment. 

Official Withdrawals

For a withdrawal to be considered an official withdrawal, a student must complete a withdrawal form or provide notification to the university of an intent to withdraw. A student is considered withdrawn as of the date he/she begins the withdrawal process or the date the student provides notification of the intent to withdraw, whichever is earlier.

Unofficial Withdrawals

If a student does not provide notification of withdrawal either because of circumstances beyond the student’s control or other instances, he/she is considered to have unofficially withdrawn. In these cases, the student’s withdrawal date is the midpoint (50%) of the payment period if the last date of academic activity cannot be determined. If the last date of academic activity can be determined, it will be used instead.

When students fail to earn a passing grade in any class: If a student receives all Fs at the end of a semester, the university will determine whether those students with failing grades have unofficially withdrawn. If a student who began attendance and has not officially withdrawn fails to earn a passing grade in at least one course offered over an entire payment period, the institution must assume, for Title IV purposes, that the student has unofficially withdrawn unless the institution can document that the student completed the period (or more than 60% of the period) based on the last date of a student’s documented academic activity.

When a student fails to return from a leave of absence (LOA): If a student does not return to Bethel at the expiration of an approved LOA (or a student takes an unapproved LOA), the student’s withdrawal date is the date the student began the LOA.

Because a student who is granted an approved LOA remains in an in-school status for Title IV loan repayment purposes, the school must report to the loan holder the student’s change in enrollment status as of the withdrawal date.

For students selected for verification who withdraw: Unless a student subject to verification has provided all required verification documents in time for the school to meet Return deadlines, the school includes as Aid Disbursed or Aid That Could Have Been Disbursed in the Return calculation only those Title IV funds not subject to verification.

If the student who failed to provide all required verification documents in time for the school to meet the Return deadline later provides those documents prior to the application verification deadline, the school must perform a new Return calculation on all of the aid the student qualified for based on the completed verification documents and make appropriate adjustments.

Post-withdrawal disbursements: If a student does not receive all the funds he/she has earned, the student may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement. If a post-withdrawal disbursement results in credit on the student’s account, a refund of the Title IV credit balance will be issued as soon as possible but no later than 14 calendar days of the posting date and returned to the student or borrower.

Post-withdrawal disbursement of grant funds: The school may automatically use all or a portion of the post-withdrawal disbursement of grant funds for tuition, fees, and room and board charges (as contracted with the school). The school needs the student’s permission to use the post-withdrawal grant disbursement for all other school charges. If the student does not give permission, the school must offer the funds to the student. However, it may be in the student’s best interest to allow the school to keep the funds to reduce the student’s debt at the school. Bethel will send notification as soon as possible, but no later than 30 calendar days after the date that the school determines the student withdrew. Bethel must disburse any Title IV grant funds the student is due as part of a post-withdrawal disbursement within 45 calendar days of the date the school determined the student withdrew.

Post-withdrawal disbursement of loan funds: The school will send a notification of the potential loan funds available within 30 calendar days of the date of determination of the student’s withdraw, and the school must obtain the student’s permission to disburse the loan funds. The student may choose to decline some or all of the loan funds so that additional debt is not incurred. The notification will request the student send confirmation of his or her acceptance of the disbursement either by email or standard mail. The student will have 14 calendar days from the date of the notification to respond of his or her desire to receive the post-withdrawal disbursement. The school must disburse any loan funds the student accepts as soon as possible but no later than 180 calendar days after the date the school determined the student withdrew.