The relationship between staffing and automation levels in the implementation of innovative college financial aid programs

The problem of this study was to determine whether participation in the Quality Assurance Program, the Direct Loan program, and the Experimental Site program had a relationship to the total number of staff and the computerization generation levels of the financial aid office at randomly selected colleges and universities. Research was conducted using the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' Staffing Model Institutional Data Survey to determine the total number of staff and to assess the computerization generation level. The size of the educational institution and the type of control was also examined. One-way ANOVAs were run to determine the differences between the groups. Correlations were run to determine the validity and reliability of the NASFAA Staffing Model software. An ancillary study was conducted using all 108 institutions with enrollments over 15,000. Data from that group was used to update the NASFAA Staffing Model software. Results showed that there was a significant relationship between both strength of program participation and individual program participation on the total number of staff and the computerization generation levels of financial aid offices. The NASFAA Staffing Model software was found to have a very high degree of reliability for most types of institutions. Recommendations were given to NASFAA on the types of institutions where the model did not have a high degree of reliability.