STATS Explained: The New Federal System Tracking College Cost and Earnings Data
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 04, 2026 • US Higher Ed News & Policy
STATS is a new federal system that publishes real tuition, financial aid, and earnings data for individual college programs, not just whole schools. It replaces the old Gainful Employment and Financial Value Transparency reports starting in 2026 and 2027.
📩 STATS stands for the Student Tuition and Transparency System.
💵 It reports program-level tuition, fees, institutional grants, and other aid data, not just school averages.
🎓 It applies to every institution type and most programs, not just for-profit and certificate programs like the old rule did.
⏱️ Regulations published July 1, 2026. Most provisions take effect July 1, 2027. Some technical reporting starts August 31, 2026.
⚠️ The same earnings data feeds the accountability test that can strip a program of federal loan or Pell access.
What STATS is
The Student Tuition and Transparency System, or STATS, is a new federal reporting framework the Department of Education finalized as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It replaces the Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment (FVT/GE) regulations that previously governed how schools reported program costs and outcomes, according to a summary of the final rule from College Aid Services .
What data it publishes
STATS reports program-level information, including tuition and fees, institutional grants and scholarships, and other financial aid data, alongside earnings outcomes for graduates. That is a step beyond what most students can currently see. The existing College Scorecard mostly reports school-wide averages, so a business degree and an art degree at the same university get blended into one number. STATS is built to break outcomes down by individual program instead.
How it replaces the old system
The prior Gainful Employment rule only applied to for-profit schools and non-degree programs at any institution. STATS applies a single earnings-based test across every institution type, public, private nonprofit, and for-profit, and covers a much wider range of programs. The new framework keeps the earnings premium measure from the old rule, which compares graduate earnings to a baseline, but drops the separate debt-to-earnings ratio metric that used to apply.
Schools ran one final FVT/GE reporting cycle under the old system, which began July 1, 2026, with data due to the Department by October 1, 2026, before STATS reporting takes over.
How the rule came together
The Department reached the current STATS framework through negotiated rulemaking with representatives from schools, students, and consumer groups in January 2026, followed by a formal proposal in April 2026. Negotiators reached consensus on the core accountability provisions before the Department issued the final rule, which is part of why the rule applies a single, simplified earnings-based test rather than the multiple overlapping metrics used under the old FVT/GE framework.
Who has to report the data
Reporting responsibility sits with the institution, not the student. Colleges and universities submit program-level tuition, fee, financial aid, and enrollment data to the Department, which matches it against wage records to calculate earnings outcomes. You do not need to submit anything yourself. Your role is checking the published results once they are available for the programs you are considering, the same way you would check a school's graduation rate or average class size before applying.
Timeline
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| July 1, 2026 | STATS regulations published |
| August 31, 2026 | Some technical reporting requirements begin |
| October 1, 2026 | Final FVT/GE reporting cycle data due |
| July 1, 2027 | Most STATS provisions, including the earnings test, take effect |
Why this matters beyond transparency
STATS is not only a disclosure tool. The same earnings comparisons it collects feed directly into the earnings accountability rule that can strip a degree program of federal Direct Loan eligibility, and eventually Pell Grant eligibility, if graduates consistently earn less than a set baseline. If you want more on how that consequence works, read our explainer on the Do No Harm rule. In practice, this ties two things together that used to run on separate tracks: the disclosure data you browse before enrolling, and the enforcement mechanism that can shut down a program's federal aid access later. A program showing weak earnings data in an early STATS report is worth extra scrutiny even before any formal loan or Pell consequence kicks in.
Where you will see the data
The Department has not finalized a single public-facing tool for STATS data at the time of this reporting. Program-level cost and earnings figures are expected to expand what students can already see through the College Scorecard, giving you a program-by-program view instead of a school-wide average when comparing options.
What to do with this data once it is live
Compare a specific program's typical cost and post-graduation earnings, not just the school's overall sticker price.
Check whether a program you are considering has ever failed an earnings benchmark in past reporting.
Use program-level data to compare similar majors across different schools, instead of relying on general rankings.
Ask your school's financial aid office directly if you cannot find program-level numbers online yet, since public tools are still being built out through 2027.
What this replaces for you as a student
Under the old system, a student comparing two schools mostly saw institution-wide averages, cohort default rates, and graduation rates that blended every major together. STATS is designed to let you compare a specific program, say, a nursing degree at one school against a nursing degree at another, using each program's own cost and earnings figures instead of a school-wide blend. That is a more useful comparison if you already know your intended major and want to weigh options within it.