Let’s Connect at AACRAO 2026

Join the National Student Clearinghouse at the AACRAO Annual Meeting in New Orleans, April 19–22, for a lineup of engaging sessions and discussions. Our team is excited to connect with you, share our latest solutions, and discuss how we can support you and your learners. Visit us at booth #207 and let’s connect.

Experience AACRAO (first-time attendees welcome)

Sunday, April 19, 3:15 – 4:30 pm

If this is your first AACRAO annual meeting, you are invited to attend the first-timers’ welcome event sponsored by the Clearinghouse.

Prevention Before Payment: How the Clearinghouse’s New Fraud Detection Platform Proactively Addresses Financial Aid Fraud

Monday, April 20, 10:15 – 11:00 am

Presenter: Sean McTighe, Vice President, Compliance, Data Reporting, and Strategy

As financial aid fraud becomes increasingly sophisticated, our safeguards must keep pace. Discover how the National Student Clearinghouse’s innovative new platform empowers institutions to proactively detect suspicious enrollment and address fraudulent enrollment patterns before any funds are disbursed. This session will explore how the Clearinghouse’s unmatched data coverage and real-time analytics are transforming fraud identification and prevention across higher education. You’ll learn how the platform:

• Flags suspicious enrollment scenarios — such as concurrent enrollments, shared addresses, and identity anomalies — before aid is disbursed, helping institutions avoid improper payments.
• Streamlines administrative burdens by auto-generating shareable reports that support compliance with federal and state regulations, including FERPA and NSLDS reporting requirements.
• Establishes a trusted ecosystem where institutions can securely share fraud indicators and enrich detection logic across the network, without compromising student privacy.
• Supports cross-campus collaboration with real-time access for multiple departments, enabling coordinated responses to emerging threats.

Attendees will get a firsthand look at the Clearinghouse’s innovative solution, including its integration with existing Clearinghouse services. Whether you’re an admissions officer, registrar, or are supporting new technology solutions at your institution, this session will equip you with actionable strategies to protect your institution and students from fraud — and reclaim time lost to manual reporting.

Tracking Transfer & Bachelor’s Completion: Insights from the National Student Clearinghouse

Monday, April 20, 1:30 – 2:20 pm

Presenters:

• Bea Randolph, Research Associate, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
• Matthew Holsapple, Senior Director of Research, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center

Join researchers from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center to explore national and state benchmarks for progress and completion along the community college-to-four-year transfer pathway. Using national entering cohorts, this session highlights transfer and six-year completion rates disaggregated by student and institutional characteristics. Attendees will walk away with benchmarks to consider for their own institutions and ways to explore data further using the interactive dashboards available on our Research Center site.

The presenters will synthesize findings from two national entering cohort studies to explore the role of transfer in students’ postsecondary trajectories, the Tracking Transfer and Yearly Progress and Completion reports. Attendees will learn about national trends in transfer from community college to four-year institutions and six-year completion rates, national and state benchmarks to consider for their own institutions, and ways to explore data further using the interactive dashboards on our Research Center site.

We can’t wait to connect with you in New Orleans at AACRAO!