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CampusIndex.

Higher-Education Solvency Intelligence

Every Title IV college and university scored on financial solvency and closure risk — assembled from each institution's own federal filings: IPEDS audited financials, ED's Financial Responsibility composite, and the federal closed-school record. No commercial data, no rankings, no estimates — including the public institutions the federal composite leaves unscored.

78.9%

Closures flagged high-risk first

5,772

Institutions scored

2,138

Scored beyond ED's composite

Federal sources

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The Data

A solvency score for every institution — including the ones ED leaves blank.

The Department of Education already publishes a financial-responsibility composite score — but only for private-nonprofit and for-profit institutions. Public colleges and universities, the largest share of the sector, carry no federal solvency number at all. CampusIndex closes that gap: where ED publishes a composite, that federal number is the anchor; where it doesn't, the same solvency methodology is derived from each institution's IPEDS audited financial statements.

That solvency anchor is then read against a multi-year enrollment trajectory and calibrated against the federal closed-school record — the join a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia study showed lifts closure-prediction accuracy from 77% to 83% over the federal composite alone. The result is a closure-risk tier for 5,772 institutions, built from the same primary sources a regulator reads.

IPEDS Finance (F) — Audited Financial Statements

The full institutional financials every Title IV institution reports to NCES — revenues, expenses, net assets, endowment. GASB (public), FASB (private-nonprofit), and proprietary forms, keyed on IPEDS UnitID, feeding the Composite Financial Index for the publics ED does not score.

Federal

ED FSA Financial Responsibility Composite

The Department's native solvency score (−1.0 to +3.0) for private-nonprofit and for-profit institutions. Below 1.0 is a federal declaration of financial un-soundness. The anchor wherever ED publishes it.

Federal

IPEDS Enrollment (EF) — Multi-Year Trajectory

Fall enrollment across four collection years. The trend axis that turns a static solvency reading into a trajectory — and the source of the “signal-loss” flag, where an institution goes dark in the enrollment file.

Federal

ED PEPS — Closed-School Record

The Department's cumulative record of closed institutions, matched by primary OPEID. The closure ground-truth CampusIndex calibrates against — the difference between a scoring model and a validated one.

Federal

IPEDS HD — Institutional Directory

The UnitID↔OPEID crosswalk and institutional identity file — the bridge that ties the finance, enrollment, FSA, and closure records to one institution without a single manual match.

Federal

Intelligence Signals

What the scored federal record reveals.

FSA-Primary Solvency

The federal number where it exists

Where ED publishes a Financial Responsibility composite, that number is the solvency anchor — not a re-derivation. 2,852 institutions are scored on their own federal composite, carried through unchanged.

ED FSA Composite

The Publics ED Omits

2,138 scored where ED is blank

Public institutions carry no federal FSA composite. CampusIndex derives the same Composite Financial Index from their IPEDS audited financials — disclosed as an AuditPoint analytical construct, scoring the largest unscored share of the sector.

IPEDS Finance · Derived CFI

Enrollment Trajectory

Solvency read as a trend

A funded balance sheet with collapsing enrollment is a different risk than a stable one. Four years of IPEDS fall enrollment turn a point-in-time solvency reading into a direction of travel.

IPEDS EF 2021–24

Signal-Loss Detection

Went dark, then confirmed closed

When an institution drops out of the enrollment file entirely, CampusIndex flags it. 24 such went-dark institutions were subsequently confirmed closed in the federal closed-school record — surfaced ahead of the official filing.

IPEDS EF × ED PEPS

Pre-Closure Calibration

Validated, not just scored

Of institutions CampusIndex scored that later closed, 78.9% were flagged high-risk before closing — approaching the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's ~83% closure-prediction benchmark. The tier is tested against ground truth.

ED PEPS · Holdout N=90

Artifact Suppression

Suppressed, not massaged

96 institutions whose ratios ran on a near-zero denominator — a component-reporting artifact, not real distress — are suppressed from named-distress findings. The published distress universe is 521 institutions, each surviving that filter.

CFI · Forensic-review gate

Composite Lag, Disclosed

Audited financials run behind

A solvency composite describes a fiscal year that closed one to two years earlier — the same cadence as any audited-financials measure. CampusIndex is a structural annual signal, and discloses the source vintage rather than implying real-time data.

IPEDS · FSA · Vintage disclosed

Survivor-Spine Limit

Scored, then closed

Institutions often drop from the IPEDS spine the year they close, so many closures are never scored. CampusIndex findings are framed as “of institutions we scored that later closed” — never “of all closures.” The limitation is stated, not hidden.

IPEDS spine · Disclosed

Source Reconciliation

Every tier ties to a raw line

Before any tier is published, the scored table is reconciled against the raw federal source it was built from. A solvency reading traces to IPEDS or the FSA file; a closure to PEPS — filing to filing, no black box.

IPEDS · FSA · PEPS · Reconciled

Two Axes

Solvency, then trajectory.

Is the institution financially sound, and which way is it moving? Solvency comes first — the federal FSA composite where it exists, a derived Composite Financial Index where it doesn't. Enrollment trajectory then modifies that anchor, and the closed-school record validates the result.

Solvency · FSA-Anchored

2,852 institutions

Private-nonprofit and for-profit institutions scored on ED's own Financial Responsibility composite — the native federal solvency number, carried through unchanged.

Solvency · Derived CFI

2,138 institutions

Public institutions ED does not score, plus private-nonprofits without a published composite — scored on a Composite Financial Index derived from IPEDS audited financials.

Trajectory · Enrollment-Only

782 institutions

Institutions carrying no solvency filing — scored on enrollment trajectory and closure signals alone, including the went-dark and closed populations.

The Score

One vocabulary. A closure-risk read.

CampusIndex places every institution on the same four-tier scale AuditPoint uses across Banks, Credit Unions, and PensionGuard — so a risk team reads a college the way it reads a bank. The composite is solvency (FSA-primary) read against enrollment trajectory, with an acute CRITICAL band below STRESSED for the most distressed.

Tier boundaries follow the federal solvency lines: STRONG at or above 2.0, ADEQUATE 1.5–1.99, WATCH 1.0–1.49, STRESSED below 1.0. The 1.5 and 1.0 breaks are ED-regulatory thresholds; only the 2.0 STRONG cut is a disclosed AuditPoint analytical split.

Strong

Solvency at or above 2.0 with stable or growing enrollment. Clears every federal responsibility line with margin.

Adequate

Fundamentally sound, 1.5–1.99, above the federal oversight threshold. No acute solvency or enrollment signal.

Watch

In the federal oversight zone, 1.0–1.49, or a sound balance sheet paired with a deteriorating enrollment trend.

Stressed · Critical

Below the 1.0 federal not-responsible line — CRITICAL where severe underfunding meets enrollment collapse or a closure signal.

CampusIndex tiers are AuditPoint derived analytical outputs — not official NCES, ED, or FSA designations, and distinct from ED's own Financial Responsibility composite. The composite reflects each institution's most recent audited fiscal year (a 1–2 year lag by design). All inputs sourced from NCES IPEDS, the ED FSA Financial Responsibility file, and the ED PEPS closed-school record, reconciled to source before publication. 96 near-zero-denominator artifacts are suppressed from named-distress findings.

Scored distribution

Strong

Solvency at or above 2.0 with a stable-to-positive enrollment trajectory.

2,765inst.

Adequate

Sound, above the 1.5 federal oversight threshold, no acute signal.

1,390inst.

Watch

In the federal oversight zone or carrying a deteriorating enrollment trend.

918inst.

Stressed & Critical

Below the 1.0 federal not-responsible line — 521 institutions after removing 96 suppressed artifacts.

521published

Shared tiers: STRONG, ADEQUATE, WATCH, STRESSED — with an acute CRITICAL band below STRESSED. A further 72 institutions are recorded CLOSED and 49 as SIGNAL-LOSS (went dark), tracked separately from the scored solvency distribution.

Who Uses It

Built for high-stakes higher-ed decisions.

Muni Bonds & Insurers

Higher-Ed Bond Desks

Underwriting and insuring college and university revenue bonds, where institutional solvency is largely unpriced default risk. A closure-risk read keyed to federal filings is diligence no ratings summary assembles.

Screen an issuer on solvency and enrollment trajectory, not reputation

Flag STRESSED and CRITICAL issuers before a new-money deal prices

Score public issuers ED's composite leaves blank

Credit & Lending

Institutional & CRE Lenders

Extending lines of credit to institutions, or underwriting real estate on and around campuses whose closure would strand the collateral. The federal solvency and closure record is a structural input to the credit file.

Score a borrower's solvency at origination against the federal lines

Flag went-dark and closure signals ahead of the official record

Identify distressed campuses in a real-estate footprint

Private Equity

Higher-Ed & EdTech Investors

Diligencing for-profit, OPM, and edtech targets, and the institutions they depend on. A target riding a partner college toward closure carries a solvency risk the deal room rarely surfaces.

Screen a target — or its partner institutions — on closure risk

Separate calibrated distress from a near-zero-denominator artifact

Benchmark an institution's trajectory before signing

Sample Findings · July 2026

What the federal filings tell us.

Sourced directly from NCES IPEDS, ED FSA, and the ED closed-school record. Verifiable. Citable.

ED PEPS · Pre-Closure Calibration

78.9%

Of institutions CampusIndex scored that subsequently closed, 78.9% (71 of 90) were flagged high-risk before closing — approaching the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's ~83% closure-prediction benchmark. The score is validated against ground truth, not just published.

IPEDS · ED FSA · ED PEPS · Holdout N=90

IPEDS Finance · Coverage

2,138

2,138 institutions carry no ED Financial Responsibility composite — overwhelmingly public colleges and universities the federal government does not score for solvency. CampusIndex scores them from their own IPEDS audited financials.

IPEDS Finance (F) · Derived CFI

IPEDS EF × ED PEPS · Leading Indicator

24 institutions that went dark in the IPEDS enrollment file were subsequently confirmed closed in the federal closed-school record — a federal-to-federal cross-source signal that surfaced them ahead of the official closure filing.

IPEDS EF · ED PEPS · 2024–26

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Institution-level solvency and closure-risk screening for individual diligence and portfolio-level reviews. No subscription required. Scope and pricing confirmed within one business day.

Every output traces to a named NCES IPEDS, ED FSA, or ED PEPS record. Methodology fully disclosed.

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Coverage Title IV institutions

Institutions scored 5,772

Scored beyond ED's composite 2,138

Data sources IPEDS · ED FSA · ED PEPS

Solvency vintage Most recent audited FY (1–2 yr lag)

Calibration benchmark Philadelphia Fed ~83%

Institution screen Custom · inquiries@auditpoint.ai

Portfolio batch Custom · volume pricing available