Portland State University’s Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarship is committed to providing students equitable access to services and funding. To ensure the integrity of the student financial aid process, we have adopted the following Student Loan Code of Conduct in compliance with the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) enacted on August 14, 2008.
All PSU officers, employees, or agents who have responsibilities within the educational loan program are required to comply with the following Student Loan Code of Conduct.
- PSU has no preferred lending agreement with any student loan lender and as such no officer or employee of the university shall engage in the practice of recommending, promoting or endorsing any particular lender. PSU does provide an unranked and historical list of alternative loan lenders.
- Neither PSU as an institution nor any individual employee may enter into any revenue-sharing arrangement with any lender. Revenue-sharing arrangements include circumstances where an institution recommends a lender or loan product who provides a loan in exchange for a fee or provision material benefit such as revenue or product sharing to the institution, employee or agent of the university.
- PSU prohibits any employee of the Financial Aid Office or any employee otherwise involved in the administration of educational loans to solicit or accept any gifts of greater than a nominal value from a lender, guarantor, or servicer.
- PSU shall not accept from any lender or affiliate of any lender any fee, payment, or other financial benefit (including the opportunity to purchase stock) as compensation for any type of consulting arrangement or other contract to provide services to a lender.
- PSU shall not assign a particular lender to first-time borrowers through award packaging or any other methods, or refuse to certify, or delay certification of, any loan based on the borrower’s selection of a particular lender.
- PSU shall not request or accept offers of funds for private education loans, including opportunity pool loans, from a lender in exchange for providing the lender with a specified number or loan volume of private education loans or a preferred loan arrangement.
- PSU shall not request or accept staffing assistance from a lender. Lenders are allowed to work in partnership with the university to provide professional assistance related to professional development or training, providing educational counseling materials, or to provide short-term, nonrecurring staffing assistance during disasters or emergencies.
- Any PSU employee who is employed in the Financial Aid Office or who otherwise has responsibilities with respect to educational loans or other student financial aid is prohibited from receipt of compensation for serving on an advisory board, commission, or group established by a lender. Any reimbursements received for reasonable expenses incurred while serving on such a board, commission or group must be reported annually to the Department of Education.
Updated 4/23/2021