The federal financial aid system is no longer up to today's demands. Built in a different era, its haphazard evolution over the decades has made it inefficient, poorly targeted, and overly complicated. With the need for higher education never greater and college growing increasingly unaffordable, students deserve a streamlined aid system that is…

Introduces A. Lee Fritschler, the new Assistant Secretary leading the Office of Postsecondary Education at the Department of Education. Notes that although the position has lost power and influence since the rise of the department's "performance-based organization" unit which runs student aid programs, Fritschler and others see…

The National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education has rejected calls for federal intervention to reduce college costs, but warned that if institutions do not control costs, the government will be forced to intervene, which could destroy academic quality. While colleges appreciate the panel's sensitivity to college autonomy, some observers…

On any given day, higher education is represented in Washington, by not only lobbyists, but also students, administrators, experts on a variety of related issues, and professors turned legislators. A typical day finds these groups in varied activities directed at influencing policy. The American Council on Education is at the center of higher…

Researchers fear that revelations of risky human subject research will frighten potential future subjects, and debate continues over the government's policy on methodology. Some feel the government has strong safeguards in place; others feel the system gives universities too much power to monitor themselves. (MSE)

Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has charged liberal scholars with using college classrooms to advance their political agendas and indoctrinate students, blaming feminists in particular. She urges trustees and alumni groups to become more involved in protecting academic freedom. Some critics are alarmed. (MSE)

Since its creation in 1992, the Public Health Service's Office of Research Integrity has not won a single case against a scientist accused of research misconduct. Cases are adjudicated by a panel of lawyers. Scientists and critics agree that the government's failure will have serious consequences for the research community. (MSE)

Under President Clinton's budget plan for fiscal 1995, the rise in federal funding for research and development at universities, although modest, compares well with cuts made in many federal programs. Data for proposed spending in the Department of Education and other federal agencies are presented and compared with fiscal 1993 and 1994. (MSE)

The Clinton Administration's proposed overhaul of the guaranteed student loan program would pay banks the amount of unpaid federal student loans, making the government the sole insurer of the loans. Guarantee agencies feel this action would strip them of their primary tasks of reimbursing lenders for unpaid loans. The initiative is intended to…