International students pursuing higher education in the United States incur additional expenses compared to domestic students by spending on foreign credential evaluations and visa applications. These costs are usually not reflected in program fee structures, are non-refundable, and are not covered by financial aid, creating significant, and often…

Ensuring postsecondary education is affordable for Kentuckians is a top priority of the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and higher education institutions. Maintaining access to life-changing postsecondary credentials benefits both individuals and the state alike. This inaugural report on undergraduate student debt demonstrates that…

In 2016, the North Carolina legislature implemented the North Carolina Fixed Tuition Program. This policy ensures that, once enrolled, an undergraduate student's tuition rate at any of the state's four-year public colleges will not increase for eight consecutive semesters of enrollment. While touted as an effort to increase affordability by…

How have changes in the price of enrolling full time at public 2- and 4-year colleges affected student decisions about whether and where to enroll in college? Using local differences in the growth of tuition at community colleges and public 4-year colleges, we study the impact of public higher education tuition prices on the post-secondary…

Objective/Research Question: States have increasingly used merit-based criteria to distribute scholarships and grants, and the dominant conversation on merit-aid programs centers on students attending 4-year colleges and universities. This study examines the characteristics of state-funded merit-aid programs for community college students and…

Each year, NASSGAP completes a survey regarding state-funded expenditures for postsecondary student financial aid. This report, the 54th annual survey, represents data from academic year 2022-23. Data Highlights include: (1) In the 2022-23 academic year, the states awarded almost $16.6 billion in total state funded student financial aid, an…

Education is a fundamental right, yet access to tertiary education remains a challenge for marginalized communities worldwide. To address this, the Philippine government launched the Expanded Students' Grant-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA) in 2013, offering free college education to impoverished but academically inclined students.…

In 2016 Chile initiated a policy of free tuition for students from families in the lower half of the income distribution to improve access to and completion of higher education. The empirical effectiveness of the policy has not yet been completely demonstrated. This study analysed the difference in levels of academic performance of students…

Forty-five million Americans collectively owe $1.7 trillion in student loan debt, and women hold nearly two-thirds of it. Black borrowers are the group most negatively affected by student loans, in large part because of systemic racism, the inequitable distribution of wealth, a stratified labor market, and rising college costs. Because Black women…

This study focuses on tuition reset policies, where colleges reduce the published sticker price by at least 5%, and in many instances, much more. We use a difference-in-differences design to examine the effect of these policies on student enrollment disaggregated by race/ethnicity and a proxy for economic disadvantage. On average, these policies…

Community college baccalaureates (CCBs) provide an affordable pathway to baccalaureate-level education but increasing tuition rates present a potential financial barrier for students. Institutional aid as a cost-constraining mechanism has historically been less utilized in the 2-year sector when compared to traditional 4-year institutions. Yet,…

Objective: To evaluate how family functioning, family contributions to college expenses, and access to mentors are associated with college student's self-reported health and flourishing, and to test for moderation by family structure. Participants: Undergraduate college students (N = 238) recruited through an email list-serve at a large midwestern…

This study examines the effects of financial advice on college-saving decisions using data sets from the 2009 and 2012 U.S. National Financial Capability Study. After controlling for self-selection bias through propensity score matching, the findings show that receiving financial advice is associated positively with the likelihood of saving for…

Students with disabilities are attending college at increasingly higher rates, yet little is known about the costs they experience compared to their peers. In this study we found that undergraduates with disabilities at four-year institutions in the United States experience higher financial, social, and emotional costs, resulting in disparate…

Administrative burden, or the frictions individuals experience in accessing public programs, has implications for whether and which eligible individuals receive aid. While prior research documents barriers to accessing federal financial aid, less is known about the extent to which state aid programs impose administrative burden, how administrative…