The Post-9/11 GI Bill provides educational assistance to veterans and certain dependents. Veterans have had educational benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs since World War II, but no prior GI bill programmes have been as comprehensive or administratively complex. Covered benefits include all tuition and fees at any public…

As college promise programs proliferate across the United States with noted intentions to promote access through increased affordability, it is necessary to understand the relationship between these programs and other forms of financial aid, including loans. Using federal, state, and program-level data, we leverage a natural experiment to estimate…

The dream of an accessible education will now become a reality for many New Hampshire youngsters, thanks to a new University of New Hampshire (UNH) initiative called the Granite Guarantee Program. The UNH Granite Guarantee will begin with the incoming freshman class in fall 2017. An estimated 400 New Hampshire students will benefit from the…

An Income-Share Agreement (ISA) is an education financing tool through which a student promises a certain percentage of future income (the "income share") for upfront funding for education. Recently, ISAs have been subject to significant national attention and scrutiny from policymakers, investors, consumer advocates, and postsecondary…

Free college programs have been around for some time, but they have proliferated in recent years, prompted by rising college costs, mounting student debt, and the United States' urgent need for a more educated workforce. But while these free college, or "promise" programs have the potential to make a higher education more affordable and…

Traditionally seen as a way for institutions to help students alleviate some of the financial demands placed on them, on-campus student employment has several additional benefits institutions can leverage to assist students along their collegiate journey. If designed and operationalized effectively, institutions can use their on-campus student…

College Promise programs are thriving in California, and with the continued growth comes a need to understand the features of these diverse efforts and the perspectives of the communities in which they exist. In 2018, the James Irvine Foundation supported California College Promise Project (CCPP) at WestEd to study the College Promise landscape in…

As the price of a public college education has risen at well above the rate of inflation for decades, college affordability has become a key concern in public policy discussions. At the same time, recent high school graduates from lower-income and middle-income families are nearly 20 percentage points less likely to enroll in college the following…

Higher education is deploying a range of innovative strategies in response to rising costs and financial challenges. This report presents findings from a NASPA [National Association of Student Personnel Administrators] study on cost-saving initiatives at three institutions. Each institution aimed to creatively address different areas affecting…

At the request of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) conducted a review of Oklahoma's Promise program between August 2017 and February 2018. This report summarizes findings and observations from the review and provides recommendations. The review is organized around five areas of interest…