The investigation of New York State's attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, into the questionable practices of lenders in federal student-loan programs has helped raise public awareness of one of the greatest scams in our government: The Federal Family Education Loan program, otherwise known as the guaranteed-student-loan program, is unnecessarily…

The purpose of the United States Department of Education's (the Department) FY 2013 "Agency Financial Report" (AFR) is to assist Congress, the President, and the American people to assess the Department's stewardship over resources with which it is entrusted. This annual report is required by legislation and complies with the…

In 1960, California developed a "master plan" for its already famed public higher education system. It was and continues to be arguably the single most influential effort to plan the future of a system of higher education in the annals of American higher education. Despite popular belief, however, the California Master Plan for Higher…

This report provides the recommendations made by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health based from its examination on the health and human resources issues in Canada. Colleges are the advanced skills educators of choice. Aligned with the needs of employers, and operating on the…

In the last forty years, federal and state financial aid policy has fundamentally shifted the way in which students and families finance college costs. Whereas grants once served an important function in equalizing college opportunity, loans are now considered a key lever against escalating postsecondary costs (McPherson and Shapiro, 1998). This…

This abstract covers the breadth of higher education activities in 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. Collected and published annually, this wide range of information should be useful to members of the public…

Since the late 1990s, China has dramatically increased its college enrollments, the number and diversity of its higher education institutions, university tuition fees, and financial aid. Now students from a wider range of backgrounds have significantly more opportunities to attend college and also compete for entry into more selective…

Financial aid programs are supposed to improve access and affordability in higher education. The effectiveness of these programs is increasingly being questioned as college attainment figures stagnate and the financial burden on students and families continues to climb year after year. This report identifies the main culprit for this…

Past research from Pew's Economic Mobility Project (EMP) has shown that a college degree quadruples the chances that an individual born into the bottom income quintile will reach the top quintile in adulthood. For community colleges in particular, the project has shown that getting a community college degree increases earnings by an average of…

This study investigates how the expectations of different types of financial aid affect the student college choice process from application through enrollment. We find that students from different race and income groups respond differentially to aid packages in their application and enrollment decisions depending on their levels of aid…

Most federal support for student financial aid is distributed through student loans via the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP) and the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). This report provides information on the number of schools in each program, and the distribution of student loans between the two programs; the loan…

This report discusses the Federal Pell Grant Program, the largest need-related federal postsecondary student grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Education, along with recent changes in the program authorized by the 1992 Amendments to the Higher Education Act. The program is designed to assist student from low-income families who…

This collection of 15 essays by policy analysts and higher education specialists examines student financial aid, how policy and practice have changed, how student costs at U.S. colleges and universities are currently being met, and why and how enhancements to current programs would make the system more equitable. Following an introduction by D.…

This report uses government data to review current, past, and proposed tax-based policies and programs to promote college affordability as well as need-based grant aid. Tax-incentive-based programs include savings bonds for education, employer-provided educational assistance, state college savings plans, deductibility of student loan interest,…

This document is a comprehensive guide to electronic packaging with electronic data exchange (EDE) of Title IV student financial aid application data to and from the U.S. Department of Education. An overview chapter introduces the concepts of electronic packaging and implementation using EDExpress for Windows. Chapter 2 explains the query utility…