This article traces the development of four narratives of financial assistance for Australian university students - to encourage excellence; to meet public need; to build the stock of human capital; and as universal provision - and their effect on the development of a fifth narrative, centred on the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS).…

Community college baccalaureates (CCBs) provide an affordable pathway to baccalaureate-level education but increasing tuition rates present a potential financial barrier for students. Institutional aid as a cost-constraining mechanism has historically been less utilized in the 2-year sector when compared to traditional 4-year institutions. Yet,…

Institutions of higher education have increasingly needed to balance college affordability with their own financial sustainability. There is a growing need for financial innovation and few examples within higher education for adoption of innovation frameworks. This qualitative dissertation examines phases of adoption of income share agreements…

Objective: To evaluate how family functioning, family contributions to college expenses, and access to mentors are associated with college student's self-reported health and flourishing, and to test for moderation by family structure. Participants: Undergraduate college students (N = 238) recruited through an email list-serve at a large midwestern…

After trailing the national average for five years, funding per student at public colleges and universities in Wisconsin overtook it in 2021. State and local tax and tuition funding per student dropped nationally after adjusting for inflation and rose in Wisconsin, though it remains lower for four-year campuses in Wisconsin. The state's colleges…

The study aimed at investigating the experiences of graduate students who experience, for the first-time, cost-sharing policies in Saudi public universities. The study used the explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, involving a two-phase data collection. First, quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire administered to…

Christopher Martin argues that an interest in strong autonomy supports a right to debt-free higher education and that making tuition free is the best way of enacting that right. We argue that making higher education tuition free would, in the absence of other countervailing measure, maldistribute strong autonomy, even in ideal conditions. We also…

The Post-9/11 GI Bill provides educational assistance to veterans and certain dependents. Veterans have had educational benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs since World War II, but no prior GI bill programmes have been as comprehensive or administratively complex. Covered benefits include all tuition and fees at any public…

Low-income students' preferences for higher education might depend on the uncertainty of financial aid. Using a time discontinuity design, this paper exploits the unanticipated cancellation of a nationwide Colombian merit and need-based scholarship, called "Ser Pilo Paga," to study its consequences on students' preferences for higher…

This study explores whether the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Program, the largest federal investment in community colleges in this nation's history, expanded and improved vocational training programs. We find that, on average, the completion of credentials in career-technical fields increased at…

The purpose of this article is to analyse the gendered motivations of students to undertake doctoral research in a low-income country (LIC), Mozambique. Most research on PhD student motivation is done in high-income countries where the drivers for doing a PhD are quite different from those of people living in LICs. Drawing on original empirical…

Many important issues are being debated including but not limited to student debt reduction, a national policy for K-14 that may include free community college education, and the creation of new federal funding policies in the form of federal matching or maintenance of effort policies that hold state legislatures more accountable for maintaining…

Colleges and universities across the country must make significant capital investments to meet today's digital demands. Critical Connections explains why this challenge is more complex for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) than for predominantly White institutions (PWIs). It also details: (1) What makes the HBCU model so…

The report examines how enrolled undergraduate students and parents of undergraduates view higher education and how they pay for it. The report considers education funding sources--from parent and student income and savings to scholarships, grants, and borrowed funds--and evaluates trends in payment strategies over time. This 17th edition provides…

In December 2023, TICAS published new research on the College Affordability Gap--the gap between students' total cost of attendance and non-loan aid available to them--in California, Michigan, and New York, with a focus on students eligible for Pell Grants. Our new report builds on this research with data from nine additional states (Colorado,…