On April 4, 2022, the General Services Administration (GSA) will discontinue using the Data Universal Number System (DUNS) to identify entities doing business with the federal government. This change affects institutions participating in Title IV student assistance programs and all other programs and grants offered under the Higher Education Act.   

Instead, each participating institution will be assigned a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI).  Starting April 4, 2022, the Department of Education will implement the UEI across all of its systems.  Institutions that do not have a UEI number by that date will not be able process disbursements in the Common Origination and Disbursement System (COD) or draw or return funds in the G5 system.

An institution will automatically receive a UEI so long as it has an "active" registration status for all of its DUNS numbers in the GSA System for Award Management (SAM) website.  The deadline to register DUNS numbers in SAM is March 18, 2022.  Many institutions participate in various programs using different DUNS numbers.  It is important that each institution register all grantee and payee DUNS numbers in SAM. 

The Department of Education has directed anyone with questions about this process to call the Federal Service Desk at 1-866-8220.

You can also contact Steve Chema (stchema@glpclaw.com) with questions about the transition to the UEI system and the DUNS registration process.