The Federal Student Aid's (FSA's) Five-Year Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2020-24 (Five-Year Plan) establishes ambitious goals and objectives to ensure that FSA continues to provide access to higher education regardless of one's past educational experiences or socioeconomic status. This Five-Year Plan was informed by public comments; focus…

Income-share agreements (ISAs) are an emerging idea for helping students pay for college. Under an ISA, investors provide upfront sums of money toward students' college tuition and other associated costs in exchange for a fixed percentage of the recipients' earnings after graduation. This paper--the first in a series examining private financing in…

Policymakers, postsecondary education leaders, and researchers agree: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) can be a barrier to achieving this nation's college access goals. Concerns about the FAFSA's negative impact on enrollment and financial aid have sparked a bipartisan push to simplify and shorten the form by removing…

For nearly 50 years, the cost of higher education has risen faster than the pace of inflation, with federal student aid contributing to increasing tuition. In 1987, Secretary of Education William J. Bennett penned a "New York Times" article, "Our Greedy Colleges," in which he wrote, "If anything, increases in financial aid…

Privatization of higher education in India is the outcome of increased demand, especially from the growing middle-income families, and the inability of state governments to step up public funding for higher education. This has resulted in rising enrolment in private unaided institutions, which increased from 25 percent in 2000-2001 to 58 percent…

For all the attention student loans have received in the media and from policymakers in recent years, there is still remarkably little information on why and how borrowers struggle to repay them. Rising college prices and debt levels explain some of the troubles borrowers have with their loans, as does a slow economic recovery that has caused…

There is currently a great deal of interest in the potential of reductions in or elimination of the cost of college attendance for students (here referred to as college subsidies) to increase equitable access to higher education. A number of Democratic presidential candidates have advanced proposals for such programs. However, because colleges and…

The Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) provides a snapshot of student financial wellbeing during the fall of 2021. Over 700,000 students were surveyed from 104 schools in 25 states and 63,751 students responded. During this period Federal stimulus funding helped stabilize finances for many students, but many still struggled to make ends…

In recent times when there has been a shift in public benefit of education from the higher education to basic education, beneficiaries of higher education take responsibilities of most of their financial commitments as students. The focus of the study was to find out the extent to which financial responsibilities affect the persistence of female…

This issue of "WICHE Insights" reviews the results of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's (WICHE) annual survey of tuition and fees at public postsecondary institutions in the WICHE region in the context of state higher education finance policy. In light of steady increases in tuition and fees rates, modest growth in…

The Center for American Progress proposes Beyond Tuition, a sweeping vision for restoring the promise of affordable, high-quality postsecondary education for all and for reducing the burden of student debt. This plan will make college affordable for families from all walks of life, while emphasizing the need to overcome widespread inequity in…

This article explores the marketization of English higher education with particular reference to the introduction of undergraduate student tuition fees. It argues that the breakdown of the political consensus that underwrote the public funding of undergraduate student funding was the consequence of ideological and economic changes that, following…

As college costs continue to rise, student loan default and repayment are issues of increasing concern to students and families, colleges and universities, and state and federal governments. Helping students borrow responsibly and manage their debt are vitally important to maintaining college access and affordability and increasing the education…

Growing concern over the complexity of the federal financial aid system and a push toward simplification has led to increased attention toward streamlining the federal student aid programs. Specifically, several proposals and policy papers have recommended consolidating the federal aid programs into one grant program and one loan program, commonly…

Americans believe in the value of a college education, but worry about its price. Recent surveys show large majorities affirming the importance of postsecondary education, but characterizing it as too expensive and sometimes financially out of reach. This Statistics in Brief describes three measures of the price of undergraduate education in the…