The college promise movement is aimed toward making the attendance and completion of college affordable for eligible Americans in hundreds of local communities and states throughout the United States. Many college promise programs are designed with the intent of enabling students to start and complete college degree and/or postsecondary…

Higher education is a critical tool for social mobility, but today, students and their families face significant challenges. It is against this backdrop that the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) convened the Task Force on Higher Education Financing and Student Outcomes. This group has identified several areas of federal policy ripe for reform that…

Every student should have the opportunity to attain an affordable quality college education, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, geography, or background, but rising college costs have placed higher education out of reach for too many of today's students and burdened others with often insurmountable amounts of debt. One solution to this problem…

Community college completion rates are low, especially among low-income students. The existing policy and research attention has primarily focused on academic and financial challenges, but there is ample reason to think that non-academic obstacles might be key drivers of dropout rates for low-income students. This study focuses on the role of…

This article presents research on persistence among at-risk students using network analysis following multiple linear regression (MLR). Data on a population of enrolled undergraduate students at an urban-serving university over several years (P = 35,239) is tested using multiple linear regression. Variables interacting at different dimensions of…

Low-income and racial minority students access college at lower rates than their more-advantaged peers, caused in part by lesser social capital. Low socio-economic status (SES) students' networks of rarely provide help navigating the application and enrollment process, preventing even academically-capable students from competing in the…

There are full-time employed graduate students who undertake full-time studies at universities in other countries but there is minimal documentation of such engagements in Ghana. This study explored the coping experiences of full-time workers who are pursuing full-time graduate studies in a Ghana higher institution. Purposeful sampling was…

This study is a historical investigation of the state education grants and loans system in Denmark during the period 1950-2000. Since 1952, Danish students enrolled in higher education programmes have been subsidised under a unified public financial aid scheme, with varying degrees of general coverage. During the first decades of the state support…

Education tax credits provide federal financial aid to a wide expanse of American taxpayers; however, little research or analysis has been done on these costly programs. There has been little evidence of its link to college enrollment growth. This descriptive paper outlines the establishment of education tax credits, their original intent, and the…

This analytical report responds to the current policy interest in some states in offering "tuition-free college" to income-eligible students attending certain public colleges and universities. In most cases only public two-year colleges are covered, although New York State's Excelsior Scholarship program also covers public four-year…

"Fault Lines in Borrowing: Academic Outcomes of Students in Default" examines factors influencing and influenced by loan defaults among students at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. The findings demonstrate that loan defaults and their harsh penalties are strongly associated with poorer academic persistence and completion. The paper…

In 2014, ACCT and TICAS partnered to examine student loan default at nine community colleges and explore administrative practices aimed at addressing students' default risks. At each college, we analyzed cohort default rate data and uncovered notable trends and populations at higher risk, identified default-reduction strategies the college was…

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 report presents findings from Encouraging Additional Summer Enrollment [EASE], which used behavioral insights in two informational campaigns, with and without tuition assistance, to encourage community college students to take summer classes. Both interventions increased enrollment and had a modest impact on credits earned and positive return…

Student loan debt continues to grow at a rapid pace (Scott-Clayton, 2018). The total debt burden for each student graduating from college is over $35,000, and that number is likely to gradually rise as tuition costs and fees at institutions of higher education increase (Friedman, 2018). The problem is not that students accrue debt but rather the…