Despite the availability of income-driven repayment (IDR) plans--and significant improvements to program design and generosity over time--too many federal student loan borrowers?continue to struggle with repayment. Many struggling borrowers never enroll in an IDR plan; even for some who do,?income-based monthly payments can?still be too high.…

The higher education narrative has been dominated by the student loan crisis as of late. While the magnitude of this problem is often oversold, borrowers do sometimes need help. However, debt forgiveness plans, such as those proposed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), deliver the biggest benefits to those who need it…

Federal student loans help many college students access and complete postsecondary degrees that would not have been attainable otherwise. But years of well-intentioned policymaking have left the student loan system a complicated mess that is difficult for borrowers to navigate and leads to unfair and inefficient distributions of taxpayer dollars.…

For students with a significant amount of student loan debt, the excitement of graduating from college can be overshadowed by feelings of anxiety and fear. Debt perception is about more than the cost of a college degree, the amount of financial aid received, or the value families place on education. In this article, the author tells a story about…

Since taking office, the Biden administration has sought to advance a complex and ambitious higher education regulatory agenda. The U.S. Department of Education held two separate rounds of negotiated rulemaking in 2021-22 to rewrite rules governing student loan relief programs and institutional accountability. This fall, the agency announced plans…

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…

The Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) is New York's primary aid program, accounting for 80 percent of state financial aid awards to students attending public, private non-profit, and for-profit higher education institutions in the state. TAP is available to students attending two-year or four-year degree granting programs as well as students…

The 'Higher Education Policy Statement and Reform Consultation' was launched in February 2022 with responses required by May 2022. This online consultation included 16 closed questions, which have been analysed quantitatively, and 29 open text boxes, which have been analysed qualitatively and the frequency of themes summarised quantitatively. The…

Nearly all borrowers with federal student loans are currently eligible for an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan that allows them to cap monthly payments at 10 percent of their discretionary income. IDR plans also include a loan forgiveness benefit whereby remaining balances are canceled after a set period of making payments in IDR, typically 20…

The American Enterprise Institute, EducationCounsel, and The Century Foundation undertook a joint process to examine--across ideological lines--the nature of the existing system that finances graduate education, including its benefits and downsides, and to design a framework that should guide the improvement of federal policy regarding graduate…

Higher education took center stage during the Democratic presidential primaries, and congressional leaders in the party are calling for universal student loan forgiveness and tuition-free public college. The incoming Biden administration will thus face pressure to radically expand subsidies for higher education. Conservatives and moderates tend to…

Since the late 1990s, the number of college student loan debtors has increased rapidly in Japan. Despite the uniqueness of Japanese higher education policies in terms of tuition levels and heavy reliance on educational loans rather than grants, few studies have focused on the influence of student loans on adult youths' lives. This study is the…

Postsecondary education in the US--all formal learning experiences beyond high school, including two- and four-year degree programs and occupational and credential programs--is experiencing a momentous transformation in response to changing conditions and the demands of students, employers, and the economy. Yet public trust in higher education has…

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 student debt crisis is particularly dire for Black borrowers. Black degree-seekers are more likely to take out student loans to pay for higher education than white students, and they carry the largest average student loan debt of all racial demographics in the nation. The COVID-19 pandemic has created even more barriers to both postsecondary…