For-profit colleges, unlike the rest of higher education, are enjoying a financial boon that is likely to improve in the next couple of years. Enrollments this fall at nine major publicly traded college companies grew at a pace faster than the average annual rate of growth for the past three years, while profit margins for this year are projected…

The findings of an annual report by the National Association of State Scholarship & Grant Programs, which each year surveys the state agencies responsible for student aid, calls spending increases in need-based aid for undergraduates "a very positive reversal of the slow growth rate" for such aid. (MLW)