The Committee for Economic Development (CED) is pleased to present these research findings regarding ways to reform student financial aid. In 2012, CED released "Boosting Postsecondary Education Performance"--calling on business to become active advocates at the state level for broad-access institutions that are so vital to the nation's…

Armed with data and projections about budgets and future enrollments, Wilson College, in Pennsylvania, considers a slew of changes, including men. Among other changes, the board approved cutting tuition by $5,000, starting a high-profile loan-buyback program, creating new offerings in the health sciences and other career-oriented disciplines, and…

This paper examines the institutional determinants of federal loan status for a recent cohort of college students. We first set out how institutions influence loan accumulations and repayment rates, with particular focus on for-profit colleges. We then test a set of hypotheses about loan status and repayment using national data on loans, defaults,…

Over the course of the past few decades student loans have become an increasingly common means of paying for a college education. Most students who complete a college program now take on student loans, and the amount of student debt that students assume has increased along with the price of attending college. At this time about 44 million…

High levels of student debt can hamper recent graduates as they start their adult lives and careers, influence their choice of job, location, or the decision to pursue further education (Asher 2009). At the same time, student loans are a vital source of financing for students looking to pursue higher education and, if managed appropriately,…

Since 2005, "The Institute for College Access & Success" (TICAS) and its Project on Student Debt have worked to reduce the risks and burdens of student debt. TICAS helped create and improve income-based repayment plans to keep federal loan payments manageable; strengthen Pell Grants, which reduce the need to borrow; and simplify the…

Recent reports point to soaring student loan debt and high rates of default as impediments to financial security for millions of Americans. A number of colleges and universities have addressed the issue with initiatives ranging from financial fixes to bold new models of higher education. The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS)…

This report provides survey results of a study of institutions' student account and loan receivables, payment channels, credit balance refunds, third-party payments, staffing and student financial services expenditures during the fiscal years from 2008-2011. [For "2011 Student Financial Services Benchmarking Report," see ED608487.]

As more undergraduates have taken out loans to attend college, the number of borrowers who fail to repay their student loans has increased. While previous research has focused on students' likelihood to default, this study employed institutional cohort default rates (CDRs) as an outcome variable. Using Integrated Postsecondary Education Data…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand how community college students assess the risks and rewards of using personal loans to achieve their higher education goals. Method: Interviews were conducted with 12 federal loan borrowers attending a large, urban community college in Texas during the Spring 2013 semester. Results: Findings…

Politicians regularly cite an expected individual economic gain (the 'graduate premium') as a justification for greater private contributions to the cost of higher education, most recently as part of the rationale for the increase in England of the cap on Home/EU undergraduate fees to £9000 from 2012 (e.g. Willetts 2011a). However, the choices…

Despite tremendous recent interest in the subject of student debt by both researchers and policy makers, little is known about how the distribution of college graduate debt has been evolving and what factors can explain it. We use National Postsecondary Student Aid Study data from 1990 through 2008 to document the evolution of college graduate…

This article presents brief items of interest to counselors and students. It presents a preview of internships and how to build careers for veterans. It also features the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program which helps an individual to repay federal student loans with public service. Lastly, it presents data from the most recent survey for the…

This document provides a summary of and recommendations from the larger report, "Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans" (ED580345). Over the course of the past few decades student loans have become an increasingly common means of paying for a college education. Most students who complete a college program now take on student loans, and…

In this paper, we consider lessons for other countries about the design of student loans with income-contingent repayments (i.e. repayments calculated as "x" per cent of each borrower's subsequent income). Using a dataset of 20,000 simulated lifetime graduate earnings paths, we estimate the cost and distributional effects of reforms in…