Background for Payment Periods (Non-Term Program Versions Only)

A payment period consists of:

  • Length of time

  • Number of credits or hours

Program versions configured with the following academic calendars are eligible for two Title IV payment periods per academic year.

  • Clock hours

  • Credit hours without terms

  • Non-standard terms according to the Department of Education guidelines

Anthology Student automatically adds the Title IV payment periods when a student enrolls in the program version configured with those academic calendars as long as they are configured to use payment periods. Programs configured as non-standard terms apply payment periods for Title IV loans where the academic terms are not at least 9 weeks or not substantially equal (having a difference in length of greater than 14 days).

While non-Title IV awards can be scheduled in Title IV payment periods, Title IV awards cannot be scheduled in non-Title IV payment periods.

Department of Education Guidelines

Programs are no longer allowed to have more than the defined two payment periods in the lesser of the:

  • Program

  • Academic year

  • Remainder of the program

You can make multiple disbursements within a single payment period, but making multiple disbursements within a payment period does not create a new or additional payment period.

When you configure non-term programs versions, your institution can configure non-Title IV awards to:

  • Use Title IV payment periods

  • Use a separate set of non-term payment periods

  • Not use payment periods at all

Program versions with an academic calendar of non-standard terms are evaluated and treated differently than clock hours and credit hours without terms. Non-standard term programs only receive payment periods for awards that are Title IV loans where the academic terms that comprise the academic year differ in length by 14 days or more. Payment periods are not created: 

  • For any other award types

  • When the academic terms that comprise the academic year are greater than or equal to 9 weeks or differ by 13 days or less

Configuring term sequencing for non-standard term program versions is recommended so that the exact terms are known when Anthology Student performs the weeks comparison to determine if payment periods are needed when the academic years are added.

How Anthology Student Adds Payment Periods

Anthology Student adds payment periods using the following logic.

  • Anthology Student automatically adds 2 Title IV payment periods when a student enrolls in a program version configured to use an academic calendar that uses: 

    • Clock hours

    • Credit hours without terms

    • Non-standard terms according to the Department of Education guidelines

  • The program version start date is the beginning point for calculating academic year and payment periods for non-term programs. If the program version start date is blank, Anthology Student uses the expected start date.

  • The weeks and credits that are defined for the academic year are divided by 2 and those numbers are assigned to each payment period. For example, 36 credits and 32 weeks results in 2 payment periods of 18 credits and 16 weeks.

    • The start date is set to the start date of the academic year.

    • The end date for payment period 1 is weeks added to the start date.

If a partial academic year exists and is less than half of a full academic year, only one payment period should be created. For example, if a full academic year is 36 credits and 32 weeks, and the program contains academic year 2, it is 16 credits and 12 weeks (less than half of a full academic year).

How Anthology Student Calculates the Remaining Start and End Dates

Anthology Student sets the start date of the subsequent payment period to the day after the end date of the prior payment period in either of the following cases.

  • If the first course in the subsequent payment period starts before the end date of the prior payment period

  • If there are any credits or hours carried over from the prior payment period

If these conditions are not met, Anthology Student sets the start date to the start date for the next course.

For subsequent end dates, Anthology Student sets the end date to a point in time where both the weeks and credits or hours specified for the payment period are satisfied.

  • If weeks is satisfied prior to credits or hours, Anthology Student sets the end date to the end date of the course that completes the credits or hours requirement.

  • If the hours or credits attribute is met prior to weeks, Anthology Student sets the end date to the end date of the instructional weeks block.

If calendars of holidays and non-attendance days are configured in Anthology Student, a payment period can never end on a holiday or non-attendance day. The end date will always be the day after the holiday ends.

If There Are Overlapping Loan Periods

Payment periods for an overlapping loan period are static. If there are two payment periods in the overlapping loan period, the:

  • First payment period represents the first half of the loan period

  • Second loan period represents the second half of the loan period

If there is an overlapping loan period, the Credits Milestone and Instructional Weeks Milestone of the:

  • First loan period payment period is set to the midpoint of the overlapping loan period and will not change

  • Second loan period payment period is set to the end date of the overlapping loan period and will not change.

The end date for each loan payment period is also set to the milestone dates.

Payment Periods Not Eligible for Title IV Funds

Anthology Student notifies you when the payment periods for a student are not eligible for Title IV funds because the student will not attend and is unable to establish eligibility for Title IV funds.

A student is not eligible if either of the following conditions is true. The "notEligibleforT4" flag is set to 1 for these scenarios:

  • A final non-zero credit payment period occurs with a credits milestone that is the same as a prior payment period.

    For example, the student registered for enough credits to complete the program version in the payment period prior to the final payment period. This occurs when an academic year or loan period has 1 or 2 payment periods and Disallow Rolling Credits/HoursClosed Select this check box to indicate that schools can progress the Academic Year (AY) and associated Payment Periods using the same logic as the Loan Period (LP) and associated Loan Payment Periods. For additional information on Disallow Rolling Credits/Hours, see General Background for Student Pace Evaluation. is disabled to create a final academic year or loan period with a single payment period.

    See Add or Edit Student Pace Evaluation.

    For more details, see Completed Flags and Disallow Rolling Credits.

  • A zero credit payment period occurs and the campus has been configured to Allow zero out extra AY/LPClosed Select the check box to allow the system to adjust a packaged academic year (AY) and loan period (LP) when Course work to reduce AY/LPs is enabled. For additional information, see Background for Campuses Financial Aid..

    In this case, there are extra payment periods that are unneeded but cannot be removed due to constraints. Instead, they are updated to have 0 credits or hours.

    See Configure COD & Packaging Settings for Campuses.

When a student is not eligible for a payment period, the Academic Years tab displays the message, "The system has calculated the student will not complete their program prior to this payment period and will not be eligible for Title IV funds associated with the payment period".

Your institution can configure an alert for a staff member when a payment period is flagged non-eligible for Title IV funds. See Configure SAP & Alerts Settings for Campuses.

Locked Payment Periods

If you are using SPE, you can use the Awarding page to include and exclude (lock) the dates that are adjusted automatically when credits or hours are applied to the sequences for: 

  • Academic years and payment periods

  • Loan periods and payment periods

Academic years and payment periods and loan periods and payment periods are independent of each other. For example, if you lock an academic year, the loan period can be unlocked.

The program includes logic to ensure dates are updated correctly. For example, if you: 

  • Lock payment period 1, Anthology Student locks the academic year start date and displays a message so that you can lock all previous sequences

  • Unlock the start date for the academic year, Anthology Student unlocks the payment period and displays a message so that you can unlock all the following sequences

If you lock a start date, SPE can still adjust the end dates. For example, if you lock payment period 1, SPE can still adjust the: 

  • End date of payment period 1

  • End date of the academic year or loan period

  • Start and end dates of payment period 2

If you lock an end date for a payment period, all previous sequences must also be locked.

While academic years and payment periods and loan periods and payment periods are independent of each other, the same logic is used for both.

If needed, you can manually change the dates of locked sequences and payment periods.