This dissertation is a collection of three essays in Public Economics. The first chapter studies the optimal design of student loans as a lever to foster the inclusion of poor students in private colleges in Brazil. The second chapter delves into understanding the consequences of affirmative action as a tool to increase the participation of…

The Cal State Student Association (CSSA) and The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) examine trends in college affordability for California State University (CSU) bachelor's degree recipients compared to its original analysis published six years ago. This new report finds that in 2021-2022, nearly two in three CSU bachelor's degree…

The annual National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) Tuition Discounting Study (TDS) measures tuition discount rates and other indicators of institutional grant awards to undergraduates attending private nonprofit (independent) colleges and universities. The "2017 Tuition Discounting Study" report, based…

The role of higher education towards social, economic and cultural development of our societies is certainly unquestionable from various aspects. In that sense, synergy and mutual dependence of higher education and society & vice-versa is a constant of modern times. However, one must acknowledge that all these aspects very often are highly…

At the end of 2019, 43 million Americans owed over $1.5 trillion in federal student loans. The rapid increase in these balances over the past decade has led many to deem student debt a "crisis." Now, there is growing support among Democratic policymakers, and even some Republicans, to immediately cancel all or most of the federal…

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

This issue of "DataPoints" shows the percent of adults by selected demographics who support or oppose free tuition at public colleges and universities. The data demonstrate that nearly three-fourths of American adults support free college tuition for those who qualify for it.

Tuition prices, as well as the living expenses students must cover, have risen rapidly while household incomes have grown slowly or even declined except for those at or near the top of the income distribution. As incomes have stagnated and the savings rate has declined, students have come to depend more and more on financial aid from federal and…

The Arkansas National Guard Tuition Assistance (NGTA) program was created to recruit and retain Arkansas National Guardsmen by providing college funding regardless of Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test scores. The funding provided up to 100% of tuition costs at any Arkansas public college or university and was effective…

To understand increases in student share of net tuition for state colleges and universities, resulting from state financial decreases in support for higher education, a quantitative, longitudinal, multi-level analysis of data from all 50 states in the USA from 1992 to 2013 was examined. Five hypotheses related to (1) growth in student share of net…

New Jersey's state grant program delivers the highest level of need-based aid per student in the country. And the state's major grant program, the Tuition Aid Grant (TAG), funds all eligible students, rather than excluding students when the funding runs out. But different levels of grant aid for enrollment in different institutions within sectors,…

RAND researchers studied more than 450,000 recipients of New Jersey's Tuition Aid Grant (TAG) -- the nation's most generous state-funded grant program per state resident college student -- to explore whether getting larger amounts of grant aid led to higher graduation rates for students at varying income levels and attending two-year, four-year,…

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

Today, costs loom large in public discussions about the problems in higher education. That's no wonder. Tuition at four-year private colleges has grown at an average annual rate of 2.3% above inflation over the past 10 years. Four-year public and two-year institutions have seen similar trends, with tuition growing at an annual rate of 3.1% and…

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