HUNTINGTON -- A report published July 11 by The Chronicle of Higher Education lists Huntington Junior College as having one of the 10 highest student loan default rates among the nation's for-profit colleges.

According to Jeffrey Brainard, the manager of editorial data research at The Chronicle for Higher Education, the 41 percent figure reflects the number of students who started repaying their loans in 2007 and have defaulted in the three years since. In terms of actual students, that means 199 of 483 have defaulted.

He put together the data for a story about a new federal rule on student-loan defaults that will take full effect in 2014. Currently, colleges only have to report two-year default rates, meaning the number listed on the U.S. Department of Education website for Huntington Junior College is 31.2 percent.

The story states that under federal law, the Education Department is required to publish a two-year cohort-default rate, which is the percentage of borrowers who default in the first two years of repayment.

But with grace periods, deferrals and forbearances, the two-year numbers aren't as accurate as three, which led Congress to pass legislation in 2008 that extended the time frame to three years, starting in 2011. It takes full effect in 2014.

Using the three-year model at Huntington Junior College for 2006 and 2005 shows a default rate of 38 percent and 33 percent, respectively. The two-year rates were much lower, 25.5 percent in 2006 and 17.7 percent in 2005.

Catherine Snoddy, assistant director for Huntington Junior College, said she can't dispute the figures in the Chronicle for Higher Education's report because they haven't run the same report.

"But it's not fair they judged us against something you've never been judged on before," Snoddy said. "We won't say that (it's accurate or not accurate) because we've never run it."

Snoddy noted that even though student loan payments is the responsibility of the student, the college did start a department last year dedicated to helping students avoid defaulting on student loans -- done in response of the 31.2 percent two-year default figure.

"We created a department to help students and graduates monitor their student loans," she said, adding that she thinks it will help trend down default rates in upcoming years.

The average cost of a two-year program at Huntington Junior College is $14,940.

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