In the United States today, there exists a very serious conversation over financial aid at all levels of education. The conversation going on nationally permeates every level of society: politics, the nuclear family, and the economy. Further, at this point in our national history, we have several generation gaps with respect to education and its…

We exploit the Youth in Transition Survey, Cohort A, to investigate access and barriers to postsecondary education (PSE). We first look at how access to PSE by age 21 is related to family characteristics, including family income and parental education. We find that the effects of the latter significantly dominate those of the former. Among the 25%…

The Ministry of Education in Canada's province of Quebec is threatening to significantly reduce McGill University (McGill)'s operating grant in response to a proposed Master's of Business Administration (MBA) tuition fee increase. From September 2010, the university's Desautels Faculty of Management is aiming to substantially raise the current…

As the global marketplace becomes increasingly competitive and knowledge-driven the potential social and economic benefits of education have increased. As a result, the past few decades have witnessed an unprecedented expansion in the demand for post-secondary education (PSE) worldwide. The Canadian Council on Learning monograph series,…

While higher education is regarded a high priority for economic development in many countries, public budgets often fall short to support desired levels of expansion in higher education. This leads to cost-sharing: students and their families are required to contribute more to the costs of higher education. This paper explores worldwide trends to…

The increasing cost of higher education, coupled with the inability of federal and state governments to sustain parallel increases in levels of funding for student financial aid, has led to significant growth of student loans. This project analyzes the multidimensional student loans space in the US. This project also compares and contrasts some of…

Policy-makers and institutional administrators have long struggled with the question of college and university student tuition fees. In many ways this struggle may be characterized as a negotiation between two distinct policy goals: providing revenue to adequately finance higher education and ensuring student accessibility to higher education. The…

In a period of student loan scandals and U.S. financial market instability impacting on the cost and availability of student loans, this paper looks at alternative models of higher education funding. In this context, it also considers the level of financial support that the government should provide to higher education.

This guide is designed to help students in Alberta, Canada, plan and finance postsecondary education. A student who has made financial plans will have more options when it is time to choose an institution for postsecondary education. How to choose the right school depends on what a student wants from education and what he or she plans for the…

The prospect of tuition fee increases for public sector universities has attracted an enormous amount of attention in recent years as governments in all industrialized countries have responded to the converging pressures of increased demands for higher education and rising costs of competing areas of social spending. I show that this dilemma is…

This paper was prepared as a step in the consultation process to develop a Blueprint for Change that will take postsecondary education in Alberta through the next decade. The Blueprint will identify key strategies to shape future directions and identify priorities for change. This document reflects feedback from stakeholders to a previous…

Presents results of an empirical investigation of Canadian student loans for four recent cohorts of graduates. Data include proportion of students graduating with loans and average amounts borrowed, loan burden measured by debt-to-earning ratios, repayment rates following graduation, and number of graduates reporting loan difficulties. Results are…

Access and affordability are bountiful concepts and key words used by policy makers in defining the role of post-secondary education and training in Canada. However, these words have not translated into action for many learners due to student debt. Incurred from high tuition fees, costly and complex payback schemes and under-funding, chronic…

The Ministry of Advanced Education (Ministry) provides overall funding and policy direction for British Columbia's public post-secondary education system. The Student and Strategic Services Division, Ministry of Advanced Education requested Internal Audit & Advisory Services to conduct a review of the international education programs at…

Canadians have experienced a reduction in government funding toward postsecondary education over the past ten years, as well as a shift in student-support policies. Historically, paying the costs of postsecondary education in Canada has been a responsibility shared by the state, and students and parents. Changes in government policy have forced…