8th Feb 2005 07:02
Pearson PLC08 February 2005 8 February 2005 PEARSON AWARDED FEDERAL STUDENT AID CONTRACT BY U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION The U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid (FSA) office todayannounced the award of a contract to Pearson Government Solutions which combinesproviding information to college students about financial aid, processing aidapplications and disbursing grants and loans. The one-year contract is valued at$80 million and has nine one-year options, so that the total value over the lifeof the contract could approach $800 million. FSA provides more than $69 billion in postsecondary financial aid to more than10 million students every year, including more than $51 billion in new studentloans and more than $11 billion in Pell Grants. FSA directly manages or overseesapproximately $357 billion in outstanding student and parent loans for more than25 million borrowers. Pearson Government Solutions will design, build, and operate a new system thatbrings together services currently delivered through four separate contracts.The new program will integrate the front end of the student financial aidprocess and manage it in a more streamlined and cost-effective manner. Inaddition, it will improve customer service by simplifying and integratingservice delivery to students, their parents, and student aid delivery partners. "As a performance-based organization, FSA is committed to improving its customerservice and achieving real results," said FSA Chief Operating Officer TerriShaw. "We are excited to better serve students, parents, and schools through anintegrated, cost-effective application, origination, and disbursement solution." "FSA and Pearson share the goal of providing opportunities for people to enrichtheir lives through education," said Marjorie Scardino, chief executive ofPearson. "We are proud to play a part in helping the Department of Education putAmerica's students through college, and we look forward to continuing ourpartnership for years to come." Pearson Government Solutions currently provides FSA with financial aidapplication processing systems. Services moving into the new Front End BusinessIntegration contract include: • Customer interaction services providing responses to millions of student inquiries regarding financial aid; • Eligibility determination services processing over 18 million applications a year, calculating financial aid eligibility, and notifying students and educational institutions of the results. Nearly 80 percent of all federal aid applicants submit a FAFSA (Free Applicationfor Federal Student Aid) via FAFSA on the Web (www.fafsa.ed.gov). The 2003American Customer Satisfaction Survey Index rated this service comparable toUPS, Amazon.com, and Mercedes. More than 5,000 educational institutions andfinancial aid servicers use EDExpress software to manage financial aidapplications and payment information. In addition to these services, Pearson will also integrate Direct Loan and PellGrant origination and disbursement functionality into the new system.Approximately 5,500 institutions of higher education participating in the PellGrant and Direct Loan programs will use this system to originate and disburseaid for more than 5 million recipients, totaling approximately $20 billion infederal assistance each year. To integrate and improve these services, Pearson Government Solutions haspartnered with several key subcontractors, including Electronic Data Systems(EDS), IBM, ORC Macro, Bearing Point, Tier 1, and Applied Engineering Management(AEM). Pearson Government Solutions has worked with FSA to provide student financialaid services for more than 20 years. Over that period, the volume of applicantshas increased from 6 million in 1984 to 13 million in 2004. Since theintroduction of web-based services in 1997, accuracy levels have climbed tonearly 100 percent. "Pearson Government Solutions has designed the best solution for financial aidservices using our understanding of FSA's needs and challenges, and ourcommitment to being the premier provider of integrated service solutions forcritical government programs," said Pearson Government Solutions President andCEO Mac Curtis. For more information: Luke Swanson/ Charlotte Elston +44 (0) 207 010 2310 About Pearson Government Solutions With nearly 5,000 employees worldwide, Pearson Government Solutions, based inArlington, Va., serves customers in the U.S. federal, state and local, andinternational government; higher education institutions and student financialaid entities; and the worldwide telecommunications industry. The companydesigns, builds, and operates solutions that optimize public sector entities'performance in delivering information, benefits, and services to theirconstituents. Clients include the Federal Communications Commission; the U.S.Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security,Justice, Labor, and Veterans Affairs; the Equal Employment OpportunityCommission, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.Pearson Government Solutions is a business of Pearson (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO),the international media company. Pearson's primary operations include PearsonEducation, the world's largest education company, the Financial Times Group, andthe Penguin Group. # # # This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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