Food insecurity among low income students has increased during COVID-19, and could persist for months or years for students saddled with educational debt or facing uncertain unemployment. Access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for children has a proven effect on reducing childhood food insecurity, and when students…

Through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of March 2020, Congress created the first-ever federal emergency aid program for higher education, the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). In the 2020-21 academic year, MDRC partnered with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators…

During the 2020 period of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education delivery changed drastically. Using document analysis and interviews with staff and students, in this article I address how the practice of financial aid changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff reported that these changes created problems with technology and radically increased…

Black women pursued graduate and professional school, post-degree options, and employment at a time when their economic future and livelihood were unknown. The novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) complicated what many Black women were already experiencing. Guided by critical race feminism, the purpose of our exploratory study was to highlight how and to…

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of various approaches taken to address anticipated and demonstrated needs of university students, faculty, and instructors through and beyond the transition to fully online instruction in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The authors discuss the complexities associated with navigating…

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…

The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA; P.L. 89-329, as amended) authorizes the operation of three federal student loan programs: the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) program, the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, and the Federal Perkins Loan program. While new loans are authorized to be made only through the Direct…

The U.S. Department of Education is currently providing more than $6 billion for colleges to disburse directly to students as flexible emergency aid under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020. At the same time, other public and private funds are becoming available to assist students affected by the…

As our country is on the brink of a new presidential administration and new Congress, amid a global pandemic, the importance of investing in and strengthening our nation's postsecondary education system has never been more important. Concerns over college access, affordability, and transparency are colliding with the growing demand in the…

As the coronavirus pandemic ravaged communities, cities, and countries in 2020, colleges and universities faced a unique emergency. Millions of students were struggling to meet their basic needs, and institutional emergency aid funds were rapidly running out. For the first time in history, Congress responded by authorizing billions of dollars in…

The COVID-19 crisis has all but upended higher education's business model, given the high susceptibility of college campuses to viral outbreaks. Since a vaccine will likely not be available until 2021, universities could be facing up to three consecutive semesters of remote learning and reduced revenue. Going forward, more students may choose to…

This is an update to the report "Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans." Americans today carry $1.54 trillion in student loan debt. That number has more than doubled over the last decade--increasing at nearly six times the rate of inflation. Women are particularly burdened, holding nearly two-thirds of all outstanding loans--around…

2020 ushered in the convergence of multiple societal, political, environmental, and health crises. Racial reckoning collided with fearmongering on a national scale and punitive policies targeted non-citizens simultaneous to the global health pandemic COVID-19. COVID-19 required the unexpected pivoting from in-person instruction to what was, for…

Higher education is essential to accessing high-demand jobs with family-supporting wages and improving family financial wellbeing. This was true before the COVID-19 pandemic and is especially true now as the nation continues the process of recovering from one of the worst public health, economic, and social crises in modern U.S. history. To…

This hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions examines COVID-19 Response and Recovery in supporting the needs of students in higher education and lessons on safely returning to campus. Opening statements were presented by: (1) Honorable Patty Murray, Chair, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; and (2)…