The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) program makes several types of federal student loans available to individuals to assist them with financing postsecondary education expenses. This report presents a comprehensive overview of the terms and conditions that apply to federal student loans made through the Direct Loan program. It…

Can an academic institution be truly free if it relies on government funding? Federal dollars mean federal mandates, and those mandates grow increasingly draconian. More and more, they stifle debate on open questions, demand denial of verifiable scientific truths, eliminate due process for students accused of misdeeds by other students, or insist…

Various state and federal policies and regulations have made higher education more accessible to undocumented students over the past few years. As undocumented students continue to enroll in colleges and universities across the country, higher education professionals must be equipped with knowledge and skills to provide them with equitable…

In April, 2015 the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) joined a collaboration to assist students whose college or career school closed while they were attending or shortly after they withdrew. This collaboration, a response to the closure of Corinthian College, received hundreds of student inquiries in the first…

It is now widely acknowledged that many for-profit colleges engaged in unsavory practices to maintain the flow of taxpayer dollars. By marketing to veterans and low-income students eligible for the maximum amount of federal financial aid, owners grew their schools rapidly, while overcharging and under-delivering along the way. In many cases, these…

This article analyses a recent policy change in higher education in Hong Kong to determine the significance of politics in the conceptual understanding of higher education governance. To achieve this objective, the article examines the tension between the global agenda, which is characterised by neoliberal ideology and practices, and local needs,…

More than 50 years ago biologist Garrett Hardin published his influential essay 'The Tragedy of the Commons'. In his essay, Hardin argued that in situations where people share resources, external intervention via governmental regulations or privatization of the resource is needed to avoid resource overexploitation. While the article is considered…

Regular and substantive interaction (RSI) between instructors and students is a core component distinguishing distance education from correspondence education. In contrast to correspondence education where students are not in regular and substantive interaction with instructors, distance education is eligible for Title IV financial aid because of…

This "Policy Brief" provides an overview of a new proposed accreditation policy framework in the United States that would focus on student outcomes to differentiate accreditor engagement with institutions. It is designed to address the core federal interest in ensuring that billions of annual student loan and taxpayer dollars are spent…

The 90/10 rule dictates that no more than 90 percent of institutional revenue at a for-profit college or university (FPCU) can come from Title IV funds. The rule, originally an 85/15 ratio, was introduced in the 1992 amendments to the Higher Education Act and has been debated for 25 years. Proponents argue the rule raises institutional quality by…

This work is part of current research focused on private higher education in Mexico, under an economic sociology approach of the education market and territorial integration. The paper focuses on four key topics: the current characteristics of growth and supply of private higher education; the forms that its territorial distribution in the country…

While advocates of the proposed "Gainful Employment" regulations promise a variety of improvements for students attending for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs), there is little research on how these institutions are responding to this heightened form of accountability. Through interviews with senior executives of FPCUs, we used…

The federal higher education rulemaking process develops policies that can profoundly affect college students, higher education institutions, and other actors in the higher education policy community. But little has been researched about the influence that different types of actors have on higher education rulemaking. By analyzing interviews with…

This concurrent mixed methods study revealed the impacts of the Title IV, Federal Regulation, State Authorization (SA), on a statewide community college system, with regard to staffing, establishment of local processes, obtainment of authorizations, fiscal resources, and student enrollment. The study takes place within the California community…

The fortunes of the for-profit higher education industry rise and fall with the political tides in the United States. During the 8 years of the George W Bush Administration (Republican), the for-profit sector of US higher education prospered. The following two terms of the Obama Administration (Democrat) resulted in the loss of all the ground…