Similarities are drawn between trends in climbing costs for medical care and higher education. Possible effects of a prospective payment system for higher education are discussed. Colleges and universities are encouraged to retain the public trust by holding to their primary educational mission. (DB)

Explores how, while there are fears that the new emphasis on merit-based aid comes at the expense of aid to the most needy students, evidence suggests that it has not yet jeopardized need-based aid although it is clearly rapidly increasing. (EV)

Discusses data that indicate that students' academic promise is increasingly influencing even the amount of "need-based" aid they receive, signaling that families' demonstrated financial need is of less importance than they may expect when they fill out all those financial aid forms. (EV)

Despite federal investments in student aid--plus tax credits exceeding $70 billion and state expenditures for institutions and students exceeding $65 billion--record high financial barriers erected by recent changes in tuition and financial aid have prevented hundreds of thousands of college-qualified high school graduates from enrolling in…

Affordability--the ability of students and other funders to contribute to the support of colleges and universities--is a topic of increasing salience. In this Resource Review, we examine the affordability of college from two perspectives: from that of students and their families, and from that of the state. We also identify many references to…

Public colleges and universities are complex organizations that assert their institutional autonomy as they simultaneously operate in a context demanding response to public and political scrutiny. State boards and legislators, for example, enact programs, incentives, or regulations in many policy arenas designed to affect how colleges operate. One…