After trailing the national average for five years, funding per student at public colleges and universities in Wisconsin overtook it in 2021. State and local tax and tuition funding per student dropped nationally after adjusting for inflation and rose in Wisconsin, though it remains lower for four-year campuses in Wisconsin. The state's colleges…

International student enrollment has become increasingly important in higher education financing as public appropriations for higher education and enrollments have declined. A critical consideration for U.S. public institutions -- in particular regional institutions that lack brand prestige -- is pricing. This research brief examines the methods…

Making college accessible to all includes making it affordable to lower-income families. A growing policy strategy at the state level is to provide individual students with need-based financial aid to offset tuition and living expenses. This strategy inherently presents challenges in choosing which income levels are eligible to receive aid,…

At a time when Wisconsin faces severe workforce shortages in several key sectors and demand for skilled workers has skyrocketed, enrollment in the state's colleges and universities has generally been declining even faster than the national trend. Enrollments in Wisconsin across all public and private institutions were falling even prior to the…

This is the executive summary for the report, "A Little Help: Is Financial Aid Keeping College Affordable in Wisconsin?" This study finds that Wisconsin has not prioritized financial aid programs in recent years despite their potential benefits to the workforce and students, particularly low-income students and those of color. State…

A governor's State of the State address is an opportunity to outline policy priorities, highlight past accomplishments and reflect on the condition of the state and country. In 2018, 17 governors are serving their last year in office, having reached the end of their term or deciding not to seek re-election. Many of them used their State of the…

Michigan's public colleges and universities have become steadily less affordable over the past two decades, mirroring a national trend where state funding of public higher education has not kept pace with costs, leading to increased tuition and fees. States continually assess their higher education tuition and other policies in comparison to their…

The history of American higher education has long been dominated by a battle of sustaining innovation. This paper highlights five diverse institutions that are tackling a broad range of problems in their efforts to innovate and sustain: (1) Arizona State University's open-access Global Freshman Academy creates a new pathway into the institution,…

Trellis' Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) seeks to document the financial well-being of post-secondary students and provide institutions with a detailed profile of the financial issues their students face, some of which could potentially impact their success in college. This report details aggregated findings for the 89 colleges and…

How can community colleges support students' goals of finding success in the workforce, both today and the future? This issue brief builds upon the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) previously published report "Partnerships for a Future-Ready Workforce" (2018) (ED605153). This brief is the first in a four-part series that…

This study examined rural-nonrural differences in postsecondary educational expectations and the attainment of expectations for grade 10 students attending rural and nonrural high schools in the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest region and how these differences compare with rural-nonrural differences in the rest of the nation. For…

One way in which financial aid is thought to promote college success is by minimizing the time students spend working. Yet, little research has examined if this intended first-order effect occurs, and results are mixed. We leverage a randomized experiment and find that students from low-income families in Wisconsin offered additional grant aid…

Some students from low-income families are unable to pay their college costs without experiencing material hardship. What they do to make ends meet (e.g., go hungry and homeless) inhibits learning and discourages persistence. Strategic college leaders are investigating the needs of their students and drawing on the strengths of their institutions…

Students and families all over the country are saving, working, taking out loans, and taking steps to make college affordable. Yet they still find themselves facing an unreasonably high price for college, with unexpected, and sometimes untenable, expenses, and fall short of the resources they need to successfully complete degrees. Financial…

In the United States, approximately 65 percent of all jobs in 2020 will require some level of postsecondary education, and the demand will reach 68 percent in Iowa. This report seeks to inform public discourse on higher education by providing key performance indicators relevant to the goal of improving educational attainment for a healthy economy…