Given the increasing expectation that students should bear most of the college-cost burden, loans have been the largest form of financial aid since 1982, a shift that has been particularly hard on needy students. Loan-aversion has contributed to the access problem for these students, while facilitating more privileged students' ability to…

The Obama administration has some improbable critics: members of the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) community. What started out as carefully worded commentaries have given way to more direct criticisms and complaints about the administration's policies affecting HBCUs. Although some of these gripes can be attributed to…

This article reviews the path of funding higher education in Hungary, where funding cuts have resulted in understaffing, escalating tuition, growing student debt, and declining enrollment. Graduation rates are low, government policies favor vocational disciplines, and the system of preparation and access gives preference to students from wealthier…

Despite enrolling almost half of all undergraduate students in the United States, community colleges have struggled for decades with low degree-completion rates. CUNY community colleges struggle with the challenge of low completion rates even when the degree timetable is expanded. According to the CUNY Office of Institutional Research and…

When colleges turned to online learning, they opened the door for a number of students who might have only dreamed of pursuing a degree or credential. In 2006, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) surveyed prospective adult students without a college degree and discovered that they were three times more likely to enroll in…

After receiving his PhD in 1970, the author has spent almost 30 years conducting research on the economics of higher education, chairing faculty budget committees at Cornell, serving as a Cornell vice president and then as a trustee of both Cornell and SUNY, and being associated with innumerable national commissions and higher education…

In July 2012, the executive doctoral class of 2013 from the University of Pennsylvania's Higher Education Management Program in the Graduate School of Education conducted a study of higher education in Ireland. The international study, an important component of the executive doctoral program, mirrored and built on research completed by Joni Finney…

College graduates and current students are swimming in a sea of debt. As of this writing, the total amount of outstanding student loan debt has been estimated at $960 billion. The Occupy Student Debt movement, inspired by Occupy Wall Street, has suggested that all student loan debt should be forgiven. As a starting point, members of the movement…

Internet search histories reveal much about the collective concerns and interests of the population. Researchers have demonstrated that searches for terms such as "flu symptoms" predict the onset and prevalence of flu in given geographical areas. Can such an analysis be applied fruitfully to data on searches related to higher education issues? One…

Over the past year, the authors have discussed college prices, college quality, and student financial aid with elected officials and staff from several state legislatures, financial aid administrators from a variety of campuses, and policy analysts from Washington DC advocacy organizations. They have also been able to informally gain insights at…

The growth over the last decade of the for-profit sector of higher education (also known as the proprietary sector) has been well documented. In 1999, for-profit colleges and universities enrolled approximately 629,000 students, or a little over 4 percent of the nation's 15.2 million students. By 2009, this sector had increased to 2.2 million…

One of the major developments in financing undergraduate education in the United States in the past 20 years has been the introduction of broad-based merit-aid programs by state governments. The typical program waives tuition and fees at public colleges and universities for state residents who have attained a respectable grade-point average…

In 2004 Colorado passed legislation enacting the nation's first voucher-based approach to financing higher education, known as the College Opportunity Fund (COF). The work of an unusual coalition that included higher education leaders, generally conservative policymakers, and others, COF completely replaced the traditional approach of subsidizing…

Stateline.org recently called this recession the worst in 50 years for state budgets. As has been the case in past economic downturns, higher education looks to be particularly hard hit. Funds from the American Recovery and Relief Act may have postponed some of the difficulty for many colleges and universities, but the outlook for public higher…

College--whether with a vocational or liberal-arts bent--gives students an opportunity to test areas of interest, to follow their passions, or perhaps to find passions that they didn't know they had. The question for the nation is how to provide college "opportunity" more broadly. That means a system that makes it possible for students--rich or…