This is the technical documentation for the report, "How the College Cost Reduction Act Could Threaten the Teacher Pipeline." The College Cost Reduction Act would overhaul the Higher Education Act, making changes to student borrowing and repayment, borrower protections, college oversight, postsecondary data, and more. The bill includes a…

Recent higher education accountability policies and proposals have often linked programs' or institutions' federal aid access to students' postcompletion earnings. But proposals differ regarding when to measure earnings. Policymakers may want to know how fast earnings typically grow and when in an individual's career earnings growth rates change.…

This document records testimony from a hearing before the Committee on Education and Labor that was held to examine the Department of Education's implementation of Borrower Defense. Member statements were provided by: (1) Honorable Robert Scott, Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor; and (2) Honorable Virginia Foxx, Ranking Member, Committee…

The Student Financial Services (SFS) Benchmarking Report examines student financial services operations, including: unpaid student account balances; student accounts in collections; payment channels and methods; student refunds; third-party billing; and staffing and financial services operating budget. [For the 2021 report, see ED615270.]

The number of individuals with student loan debt who do not earn their degrees is on the rise; nevertheless, there is little research that demonstrates their current circumstances and future aspirations. We address this knowledge gap by comparing the financial distresses and re-enrollment aspirations of student debt-holders who started college but…

This paper investigates the possible opportunity cost of using standard college savings plans against the advantages of using debt to pay for college. In addition, it presents a practical argument for using debt in place of college savings plans in certain instances. By doing so, investors may not only be able to mitigate the difficulty of saving,…

Federal Student Aid is money from the Federal Government that helps you pay for college, career school, or graduate school expenses. Federal student aid is available through grants, work-study funds, and loans. Every student who meets certain eligibility requirements can get some type of federal student aid. This brief describes the types of aid…

This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the funding mechanisms for higher education across sixteen countries which builds upon existing work on educational institutions, educational outcomes, and welfare regimes. We focus upon the current financing dilemma within the Irish higher education system, seeking potential solutions within an…

This paper uses new administrative data with detailed borrower information and lengthy repayment histories from the Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP) to measure rates of return on undergraduate student loans. We document substantial heterogeneity in returns based on information available at the time loans were disbursed, including province of…

This paper studies the patterns of individuals' student loan repayment for up to 12 years, tracking borrowers through the formative ages of the early 20s to the late 30s. Using social sequence and cluster analysis to understand these longitudinal repayment histories, we identify five archetypes of loan repayment that describe borrowers'…

Over the last three decades, the Direct Loan program has grown in size and complexity, with almost $1.4 trillion in outstanding federal student loans. The Direct Loan program provides financial assistance to students and their parents to help pay for postsecondary education. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to review changes…

Outstanding federal student loan debt exceeds $1.6 trillion and is owed by approximately 45 million borrowers. Thus, a policy to broadly cancel federal student loan debt would directly apply to a discrete segment of the U.S. population. Cancelling some amount of federal student loan debt would alleviate loan repayment burdens for qualifying…

In this report, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) seeks to fill the gaps in the conversation by providing thoughtful, systemic, and targeted policy solutions to address underlying flaws in the student loan repayment and servicing systems that lead borrowers into financial hardship. The report outlines…

Background/Context: Student loans reflect a larger shift in U.S. society in which people are forced to go into debt for basic needs. Student loan debt in the United States has been recognized as a political economic crisis that disproportionately devastates Black people. Scholars have statistically reported on racialized and gendered…

U.S. citizens or permanent residents, enrolled at least half time in a qualified program at a participating school, not in default on a prior federal student loan, and not previously convicted of a drug offense while receiving federal financial aid are eligible to apply for a student loan. This chart summarizes the interest rates, loan limits, and…