Definition of Branch Campus

A note from the U.S. Department of Education

For those who are still looking at the issue of defining branch campuses and additional locations, I wanted to share the following information. At this point, with respect to discussions within the Department, we have not yet determined what the best approach should be. One idea is to use the definition of a branch campus found in 34 CFR 600.2 (the Eligibility regulations) for all purposes where that term is used, including Accreditation. If we do that, we would change the definition currently found in 34 CFR 602.2 (the Accreditation regulations) to be consistent with the definition found in 34 CFR 600.2 (as modified by the minor changes found in the Higher Education Amendments of 1998). With that approach, we could consider identifying in the accreditation regulations situations, in addition to the creation of an additional location, that might warrant a site visit.

In discussing this and related changes, a number of you had indicated that it would be helpful if you could see the various places in our regulations where we used the term "branch campus," or "additional location." While I do not have a chart for you, as some of you had requested, I can direct you to our IFAP web page to help find out where these terms are used in the regulations. If you wish to avail yourself of this, do the following:

1. go to IFAP /(http://IFAP.ed.gov)
2. click on "Bookshelf"
3. click on "regulations compilation"
4. click on "as of 12/31/97"
5. search "as of 12/31/97"
6. type in the term "branch campus"
7. indicate that the search should be limited to the "exact word"
8. indicate you want the search sorted by "relevance," and
9. click "search"

You will get a list of 11 sections where the term "branch campus" is used. You can repeat this for the term "additional location" and get 4 sections for that term. To read any of the sections in question, simply click on the desired section. This should give anyone interested a good idea of where and how these terms are used.

Brian Kerrigan
Brian_Kerrigan@ed.gov