The Federal Work-Study (FWS) Program was established under the Equal Opportunity Act of 1964 to place low-income students with part-time employment to offset some educational expenses. In 1965, it was moved by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the Higher Education Act of 1965. The program was originally established as a job development program to…

This report provides a brief overview of the major provisions of the Higher Education Act (HEA), organized by title and part. Appendix A of this report provides detailed appropriations figures for HEA programs, from FY2019 through FY2023. Appendix B gives a brief overview of the General Education Provisions Act, which applies to the majority of…

In Ohio, the pandemic has forced students to pause their pursuit of a college degree or abandon their aspirations for higher education all together. The health crisis has accelerated a downward trend in enrollment in public higher education, at least for now, and thrown into sharp relief the barriers that prevent Black and brown students, and…

Three Higher Education Act (HEA) student financial aid programs--the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) program, the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program, and the Federal Perkins Loan program--collectively are referred to as the campus-based programs. Under the campus-based programs, federal funding is provided to institutions…

The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA; P.L. 89-329, as amended), authorizes a broad array of federal student aid programs that assist students and their families with financing the cost of a postsecondary education, as well as programs that provide federal support to postsecondary institutions of higher education (IHEs). Programs authorized by the…

Two federal campus-based financial aid programs, the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) and the Federal Work-Study Program (FWS), combine to provide nearly US$2 billion in funding to students with financial need. However, the allocation formulas have changed little since 1965, resulting in community colleges and newer institutions…

MDRC is pleased to provide testimony on college access and completion to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. Access to college has increased substantially over the last 50 years, but student success--defined as the combination of academic success and degree or certificate completion--has not kept pace. Student success,…

The Federal Work-Study (FWS) program is one of the oldest federal programs intended to promote college access and persistence for low-income students. Since 1964, the program has provided approximately $1 billion annually to cover up to 75 percent of the wages of student employees, who typically work on campus for 10 to 15 hours per week. The FWS…

Due to rising costs and declining affordability, many students have to work while attending college. The federal government takes a major role in subsidizing the wages of college students and spent over $1 billion on the Work-Study program in 2010-11 (College Board, 2011), yet little is known about how working during the school year impacts…

The primary purpose of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) Campus-Based Aid Allocation Task Force was to examine the formula by which congressional appropriations for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), Federal Work-Study (FWS), and Perkins Loan programs are distributed to schools,…

Financial aid makes up the bulk of federal higher education spending, but do those dollars make a difference to needy students? A look at Federal Work-Study and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant allocations show that a disproportionate amount of funding goes to private universities with high tuition and low Federal Pell Grant…

A quality education is the primary instrument of social and economic mobility in the United States. As open-access institutions, community colleges are the gateway to postsecondary education for millions of Americans. Many of these students would be unable to afford college without federal resources, such as student financial aid and tax credits.…

From 2000-2001 to 2010-2011, the total amount of federal financial aid awarded to students under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) jumped from $64.0 billion to an estimated $169.1 billion, a 10-year increase of 164%. For 2010-2011, the Title IV programs accounted for 72% of the $235 billion in total financial aid received by college…

As college costs have soared and the U.S. economy struggles to move out of the recession, more and more Americans have relied on federal student financial assistance programs to help them meet their postsecondary expenses. Data from the Federal Student Aid (FSA), an office of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), show that the number of students…

The Secretary amends title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations to establish regulations for the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant program. The TEACH Grant program is a non-need-based grant program that provides up to $4,000 per year to students who are enrolled in an eligible program and who agree to…