In August 2022, the U.S Department of Education (ED) announced it would invoke the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act) to cancel up to $20,000 of federal student loan debts for borrowers who fell below certain income thresholds. The HEROES Act authorizes the Secretary to "waive or modify" statutory…

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…

Student borrowing is a major higher education public policy issue, with students in both England and the United States increasingly relying on loans to finance postsecondary education. Our paper examines prospective higher education students' attitudes towards debt in England and the United States. It exploits a unique dataset which allows us to…

Nearly 43 million college student borrowers across the United States owe more than $1.56 trillion in outstanding federal student loans. The number of student borrowers in the country has increased by 1.3 million, or 3.1 percent, over the past five years, while the amount of outstanding student debt in the country has increased by a whopping $…

In England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the funding systems for full-time, first-time undergraduate students differ. Despite these differences, universities in each of the three parts of the United Kingdom (UK) with tuition fees--England, Wales and Northern Ireland--all share a common tendency to set them at the same (maximum) rate for…

The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted enormous financial damage on colleges and universities and the cost is still growing. American higher education will undergo an unprecedented financial crisis in the coming months. "Critical Care" is a plan to guide the federal response to these unprecedented disruptions facing higher education in…

Every year, millions of college students borrow money to help bridge the gap between college costs and available income, savings, and grants. Experts agree that, for those who need to borrow to pay for college, federal student loans are the safest and most affordable option. Unfortunately, some colleges choose not to participate in the federal…

This study compares tuition funding arrangements, debt at graduation, and earnings outcomes for full-time domestic undergraduates in eight Anglophone countries: the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland), United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. According to multiple estimates, the average English student faces…

This report, the sixth in this series, brings together again in partnership the Pell Institute with the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy of the University of Pennsylvania (PennAHEAD). These reports draw from multiple sources of existing data to provide, in one place, indicators that describe trends in equity in postsecondary enrollment,…

ACT's annual Condition of STEM reports provide essential national data on student interest and achievement in STEM subjects. The latest report--"STEM Education in the U.S.: Where We Are and What We Can Do"--takes the data one step further by pairing the latest findings with promising practices aimed at improving STEM achievement and…