University of Houston-Clear Lake Seeks to Improve Speed of Refund Distribution with the Help of Higher One

UH -Clear Lake becomes Higher One's 84th Client and the 15th in Texas

New Haven, CT – October 8, 2007 - Higher One, a financial services company focused exclusively on higher education, announced today that University of Houston-Clear Lake has elected to partner with Higher One in an effort to streamline the distribution of refunds to the university's students. UH-Clear Lake is Higher One's 84th overall client and the 15th in Texas.

Until the agreement between UHCL and Higher One, students at UHCL had received their refunds from the school via paper checks. This process was expensive and time intensive for the university. Students also had to wait a period of time to obtain these much needed funds to pay for school supplies, books, rent, and utilities.

UHCL searched for a solution that would improve student services.

"UHCL was looking for a way to improve refund services to our students," explained John Cordary, Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration at UHCL. "We wanted to give students an option on how to get their refunds and hopefully implement the ID card option for students, faculty and staff."

With OneDisburse Refund Management, UHCL will be able to offer its students a choice between three ways to receive their refunds: direct deposit to the OneAccount, Higher One's FDIC-insured checking account tied to a Debit MasterCard®, an ACH to the student's third party bank account, or a paper check mailed to the address on file.

UHCL's selection of Higher One's OneDisburse Refund Management was largely influenced by its success at other University of Houston System institutions.

"Other UH System universities were using Higher One and were satisfied with the services provided," said Cordary.

Three out of four UH System universities are now working with Higher One. University of Houston-Downtown and University of Houston, Higher One's first client, have been able to significantly reduce the amount of paper check refunds that are issued to students each semester. UH-Downtown issues 82% of the school's refunds electronically.

UHCL hopes to achieve similar results when the school issues its first refunds through Higher One in January of 2008.

About Higher One

Founded in 2000, Higher One provides higher education institutions and their students with efficient, convenient and easy-to-use solutions to handle financial disbursements. These include: student refunds, on-campus and community purchases, payroll and employee expenses, as well as the collection of payments from students, parents, and sponsors.

Higher One offers a suite of online banking services including the OneAccount, an FDIC-insured checking account, and OneCard, a Debit MasterCard^®. To date, Higher One has disbursed over $4 billion dollars in refunds for its clients to more than 1,000,000 students, faculty, and staff at distinguished public and private higher education institutions throughout the country.

Higher One recently ranked # 85 on the 2007 Inc. List of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the United States. Higher One is based in New Haven, CT.

About University of Houston - Clear Lake

University of Houston-Clear Lake offers more than 30 undergraduate and over 40 graduate degree programs, as well as a doctoral program, from its four schools, which include the School of Business, School of Education, School of Human Sciences and Humanities, and School of Science and Computer Engineering. For more information about the university, visit http://www.uhcl.edu.