In this dissertation, I study the relationships between financial aid, student characteristics, persistence, and completion in three separate chapters. In all three chapters, I use detailed, student-level administrative data from the UNC System beginning in the Fall 2013 semester. The first chapter is entitled "Tuition Reduction and Student…

The majority of Southern states performed below the national average and the average of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in terms of the percent of young adults in 2015 who attained an associate degree or higher. This regional profile presents a synthesis of trends in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)…

The nation's public universities--a key vehicle of upward mobility--must do more to even the playing field for all students. As it currently stands, students from the least advantaged populations earn degrees at a lower rate and are burdened with a greater portion of debt than their peers. However, some standout public universities are reversing…

With a bachelor's degree fast becoming the standard requirement for achieving success in the modern economy, college enrollment is increasing rapidly nationwide. State funding for colleges and universities continues to subsidize the cost of educating state residents, but spiraling expenditures in other areas are straining the ability of states to…

In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in…

"The 2009 Legislative Briefing" is a topical summary of actions during the 2009 legislative sessions that affect education in the 16 SREB states. Topics include: state budgets and the economy; tax and revenue; teacher and faculty pay raises; retirement systems; issues affecting teachers and education leaders; health and safety;…

The Recession, Retrenchment, and Recovery Project examined the effects of recessions on financial access to college during the 25-year period 1979-2004, identified states that have been relatively successful in maintaining financial access, and collected policy strategies used by these states. This study examined the similarities and differences…

This booklet provides North Carolina students with guidelines to the student financial aid programs available to them. The booklet groups programs by source of funding: federal, state, or private. Types of financial aid included are: (1) scholarships and grants, (2) loans, (3) employment opportunities, and (4) entitlement programs. Each program…

This booklet introduces North Carolinian students to the variety of student financial aid programs which exist along with guidelines for applying for aid. The booklet lists and provides brief descriptions of federal-, state-, and privately-funded programs. Information given under each program are the eligibility requirements, the value of the…

This document provides a statistical account of higher education in North Carolina. It presents data from fall 1994 as well as data on trends from 1983 to 1994. The 84 tables and 17 figures presenting the data are grouped into the following sections: (1) current enrollment, (2) enrollment trends, (3) undergraduate transfers, (4) degrees conferred,…

Public higher educational institutions, where about 80 percent of all college students and 65 percent of all four-year college students are educated, appear to be in serious trouble. In order to delve more deeply into this topic, the author invited a wide-ranging team of experts to examine changes in public higher education over the last quarter…

The "Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Fact Book on Higher Education" is one of the nation's most comprehensive collections of comparative data on higher education. For decades, state leaders, policy-makers, researchers and journalists have used the "Fact Book" to find useful data quickly--and to learn more about…

This statistical abstract presents 84 tables and 17 graphs that profile the current status of public and private higher education in North Carolina. Data were gathered from a survey conducted in the summer and fall of 1996. The tables and graphs contain both current and trend data on enrollment (including headcount, full-time equivalent, and…

This statistical abstract presents 84 tables and 17 graphs which cover the current status of public and private higher education activities in the state of North Carolina in their quantitative aspect, from simple counts of enrollment and degrees conferred to complex analyses of the flow of student transfers among institutions, including state and…