Despite action by Congress and the Bush administration to shore up the student-loan industry, some state-authorized organizations say they may not return to the loan business this year, and others are cutting some of the borrower benefits and services they provide. Nine state loan agencies stopped issuing either new federally backed or new private…

Recent accounting scandals challenge academics to refocus the educational process on the theoretical underpinnings of accounting. This is the first in a series of articles designed to facilitate this realignment. Intended as a supplement for the introductory accounting course, the essay series connects each of the primary accounting elements to…

During this period of continued economic uncertainty, higher-education institutions are facing a variety of challenges that by now are very familiar to governing boards and institutional leaders, including poor investment returns, reduced liquidity, limited choices in how they structure debt issues, and threats to flexibility in tuition pricing.…

The author devises a simple way of incorporating the financial sector into a growth model that is pedagogically useful. Financial innovation raises the efficiency of financial intermediation by increasing the variety of financial products and services, resulting in improved matching of the needs of individual savers with those of firms raising…

The investigations of student-loan programs around the country echo previous scandals in the financial world involving stock offerings and mutual funds. The relationships between lenders and financial-aid officers seem to raise the same questions about impropriety, conflict of interest, and possible fraud. Indeed, lessons from Wall Street can…

Personal financial planning is considered one of the major growth professions of the coming decade. Besides providing an opportunity for employment, a major in personal financial planning can open the door to a rewarding and challenging career. Career opportunities in the personal financial planning field include opening a private practice or…

This publication describes innovative and powerful mechanisms for financing sustainability projects on campus including energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy installations. The guide provides step-by-step guidance for establishing revolving loan funds for campus sustainability, based on the experiences of the authors in setting up such a…

The globalization of business has led to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) around the world. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a roadmap for IFRS implementation starting in 2014, with earlier adoption permitted. Yet according to recent surveys, few U.S. universities have a strategy in place to…

Today's financial world is highly complex as compared with that of a generation ago. Twenty-five years ago, knowing how to maintain a checking and savings account at a local financial institution was sufficient for many Americans. Today's consumers, however, must be able to differentiate among a wide range of products, services, and providers of…

Federal Student Aid's core mission is to ensure that all eligible Americans benefit from federal financial assistance--grants, loans and work-study programs--for education beyond high school. The programs administered comprise the nation's largest source of student aid: during the 2007-08 school year alone, approximately $83 billion in new aid was…

This collection of best practices shares how 18 higher education institutions across the country have successfully evaluated and redesigned their student financial services programs to improve services to students and their parents and find cost savings for the institution. This volume illustrates how other institutions have successfully tackled…

Increasingly, organizations find that they need to integrate large number of information systems in order to support enterprise-wide business initiatives such as e-business, supply chain management and customer relationship management. To date, organizations have largely tended to address information systems (IS) integration in an ad-hoc manner.…

Student support consists not only of direct financial support, but also of educational provisions that are free of charge or subsidized by the state and local authorities. These provisions include formal education, as schools for young people and adults as well as higher education, and non-formal education, such as study circles and folk high…

This publication is a timely reminder of the innovative ways in which universities are providing skilled graduates for all sections of the economy. Working with employers is key to this; as the higher education (HE) sector begins to operate in a competitive market, employer-led provision will enable delivery of the skills that the labour market…

To serve their campuses well, senior level student affairs administrators need to be involved as full partners in institutional decision-making. To do that effectively requires a variety of skills, including an understanding of higher education finance. The role of student affairs personnel in institutional financial decision-making has not been…