College affordability is a significant factor in student access, retention, and completion. Tuition and fee rates are a component of affordability, as is the availability of financial aid programs from federal, state, institutional and private sources, among other factors. Strategically designed approaches to college affordability can better…

This article draws on existing research, including publicly available data, to identify changes in Colombian HE which have led to its progressive massification and neoliberalisation. These include the introduction of standardised testing; endogenous and exogenous privatisation (Ball and Youdell, 2007); the expansion of the country's non-income…

Since 1997, education tax benefits have become an increasingly important component of federal higher education policy. For 2023, 11 higher education-related tax benefits are available. After 2025, absent legislative action, this number will effectively increase to 13. Two provisions that are temporarily suspended are scheduled to be…

The federal government provides financial assistance to individuals for higher education expenses in two major ways: tax benefits and traditional student aid (loans, grants, and work-study assistance). Since 1997, education tax benefits have become an increasingly important component of federal higher education policy. In 2021, 11 higher…

Today, institutions of higher education may charge whatever they wish for the education they provide, and the government provides the capital for student's tuition through loans without institutions bearing any meaningful risk if students do not repay. Naturally, this drives up costs and borrowing. On top of tuition and fees, students can borrow…

There are two initiatives that can dramatically change the way college pricing and student debt are being handled under the current system. Both are commonsense solutions that would, if accepted, dramatically help students, graduates and families burdened by the cost of tuition and the loans they take to earn their degrees. First, income-based…

This article critically examines how undergraduate students in a red brick university in the North of England have experienced the threefold rise in tuition fees since 2012, with particular attention on how they have begun to understand and negotiate the process of indebtedness. Drawing on a corpus of 118 interviews conducted with a group of 40…

Former Vice President Joe Biden recently released the Biden Plan for Education beyond High School, which details several policy proposals that would take higher education in the wrong direction. The recommended policies would make higher education costlier and degrees less meaningful--all while pouring billions of dollars into a broken system. The…

The English tuition fee system is designed to be progressive and to ensure that higher education is well funded. As the Government considers how it could be improved, many former detractors are recognising we could do far worse and fear change. This paper proposes a solution comprising three interdependent policy changes without a significant…

The authors have developed a visualization tool to assist higher education stakeholders in exploring options in higher education performance and accountability. The tool allows users to visualize quickly differences between programs and institutions along a number of dimensions. This report draws five insights from the visualization tool: (1)…

HEPI's response to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding covers the following 10 areas: (1) Part-time learners; (2) Differential fees; (3) Maintenance grants; (4) Mixed funding model; (5) Uses of tuition fees; (6) Misunderstanding among applicants; (7) Outreach versus spending on bursaries; (8) Accounting treatment of student loans; (9)…

"Liberal Education" spoke with two higher education policy experts on what they expect and hope for from the Biden administration. Viviann Anguiano is an associate director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress. Eric R. Felix is an assistant professor at San Diego State University, specializing in higher…

The Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965 was meant to unlock the secret to upward economic mobility by granting more Americans the chance to obtain a college degree. Nonetheless, the originators failed to recognize how this dramatic shift in federal higher education policy would affect generations to come. Today the federal government originates or…

The proposed College Affordability Act calls for a massive uptick in federal spending on higher education and increased access to federal student aid (which has been shown to inflate tuition), while easing the criteria for federal loan forgiveness, leaving the bill to American taxpayers. Americans need solutions that will drive down the price of…

The overall financial structure of US higher education has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, resulting in a significant reduction of public funding. One result of this shift has been the steadily increasing costs of tuition as an increasing portion of the financial structure of higher education is shifted to students. Increased costs to…