The Appropriation Act directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to make a report annually to the governor and the chairs of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees on the annual change in total charges for tuition and fees approved by the boards of visitors at Virginia public institutions of higher education…

The 14 four-year universities within Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education have been a pivotal engine of upward mobility for working families in Pennsylvania for decades. Today, the role of these schools in making the American Dream a reality for a hundred thousand Pennsylvanians each generation is threatened. Deep cuts in state funding…

Raising incomes and increasing opportunity hinges critically on access to post-secondary education and training. If Pennsylvania does not expand access to higher education to more of its citizens, the authors argue, the Commonwealth's economy will suffer and living standards will lag growth elsewhere. With a modest and smart investment,…

Nebraska is committed to measuring its progress toward achieving the major statewide goals through national comparisons and institutional peer comparisons. It is the aim of the "Comprehensive Plan" that, when rank order is appropriate, Nebraska will rank among the ten best states in national comparisons, and individual public…

Nebraska is committed to measuring its progress toward achieving the major statewide goals through national comparisons and institutional peer comparisons. It is the aim of the "Comprehensive Plan" that, when rank order is appropriate, Nebraska will rank among the ten best states in national comparisons, and individual public…

Policymakers are moving to outcomes-based funding in an effort to inspire public higher education institutions to drive the transformative change required to expand access, increase graduation rates and contain costs. For outcomes-based funding to have a significant effect on student outcomes, system and institutional leaders must successfully…

To better understand student debt in Minnesota, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (the Office) gathers information on cumulative student loan debt from Minnesota degree-granting institutions. These data detail the number of students with loans by institution, the cumulative student loan debt incurred at that institution, and the percentage…

Nebraska is committed to measuring its progress toward achieving the major statewide goals through national comparisons and institutional peer comparisons. It is the aim of the "Comprehensive Plan" that, when rank order is appropriate, Nebraska will rank among the ten best states in national comparisons, and individual public…

From their very beginnings, the community colleges have demonstrated a commitment to their founding principles of access, affordability, and quality. However, following February 2009, when President Obama set forth the agenda for U.S. postsecondary education to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020, priority shifted…

Community colleges are vital to the states and the nation. The importance of community colleges as providers of postsecondary education and training is well documented. Fulfilling both economic and social roles, these institutions have successfully created new markets and empowered new populations through educational opportunity. This report…

Community colleges are essential to achieving state goals--increasing the educational attainment of the population, increasing access and completion, eliminating achievement gaps, closing opportunity gaps, and addressing workforce and economic development objectives. These institutions are flexible, adaptable, affordable, community-based,…

Many states are passing "free" college plans, and policymakers at both the state and federal level continue to debate the merits of national "free college" or "debt-free college" proposals, also known as Promise programs. Both federal and state "free" college proposals are geared toward a policy objective of…

Universities are undergoing historic change, from the sharp downward shift in government funding to widespread demands to document performance. At the University of California Berkeley, this led to an operational change effort unlike any the university had ever attempted, dubbed Operational Excellence. The authors describe their experiences…

The COVID-19 health crisis has laid bare the structural inequity in the financial aid system. The pandemic has hit the lowest-income students hardest, with many struggling to afford the basic technology for online learning on top of new or exacerbated food and housing insecurity. Federal and state dollars predicated on Pell Grant eligibility, time…

A new and rigorous examination of cost structures on the academic side of colleges and universities is needed in order to continue increasing access and serve the historic role of educating future citizens and functioning as an economic driver of society. Only rethinking the development and delivery of the curriculum will address today's issue of…