Access to higher education varies across states for undocumented students (with or without Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA]). In-state resident tuition policies (ISRTs) provide eligible undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates at public universities and colleges. This qualitative study examines interviews from institutional…

This quantitative research study builds on existing theoretical concepts of human capital management, expectancy theory, and psychological contracts to show that utilization of employer-sponsored tuition benefits (ESTB) by higher education employees directly correlates to increased employee tenure and retention. ESTB utilization over a 10-year…

In the United States, postsecondary educational attainment positively correlates to the probability of a person being employed and the amount of money they earn (U.S. Department of Labor, 2018). Financial aid programs attempt to help students afford, remain in, and finish their postsecondary pursuits, but Levin (1989) asserted some forms of…

The Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) is a multijurisdictional test that law students can use to gain admission to the bar in 37 states and territories. Despite this near-universal applicability and the potential of UBE to impact law schools' admissions, diversity, affordability, and employment outcomes, no research to date has examined the impacts of…

Understanding how students with low socioeconomic status finance their tuition over time can help us comprehend the impact of students' decisions on their subsequent curricular progress, graduation, or dropout. This work presents a curricular analytics approach using process mining techniques to study educational funding trajectories as processes.…

Background/Context: As college tuition continues to rise, financial barriers to higher education disproportionately impact low-income students. Over the last few decades, several states have instituted merit-based scholarships not only to increase college access but to create incentives for college readiness among high school students. The…

There is social and collaborative value in a diverse student body, faculty, and staff. Despite this, universities are slow to establish evidence-based fiscal initiatives to increase representation and retention. We review inequitable financial practices in American higher education, including in endowments, tuition and annual giving, athletics,…

In higher education, when students are not retained, institutions forfeit their tuition, and the student forfeits their education. Due to the ramifications of lost revenue from a lack of retention, more research is needed. The current study examines nine students who were pursuing an online asynchronous professional graduate degree at an…

Economic development theory focuses on a country's human capital development which is its greatest resource. Human capital development is the empowerment of citizens which comes through education and training. A major player in this process is Community colleges which its mandate is to bridge the skills gap and attend to the academic needs of its…

Discussion of the rising price of higher education and associated student debt in America has been a key feature of political discourse in recent memory, with renewed interest sparked by the announcement of the student loan forgiveness plan. Federal student debt has increased by 756% since 1995, and total student debt tripled from 2007 to 2022.…

The Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise) is amongst the most well-known and generous tuition-free policies. This study advances the understanding of Promise student performance and persistence. We used a weighted-least square means and variance adjusted (WLSMV) SEM approach and k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) to deal with missing data. The main model suggested…

In a time of increasing economic inequality, lower levels of government investment in higher education, and rising tuition costs, students vying for a college degree experience financial concerns as important influences on their college experience. An emerging body of literature has focused on the relationship between student finances and academic…

The discrepancies in college enrollment based on a student's socioeconomic background challenges the upward mobility of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Jesuit colleges and universities, guided by Catholic Social Teaching and their own focus on social justice, are uniquely positioned to facilitate the social mobility of the…

University dropout is a serious problem in higher education that is increasingly gaining importance, as it is essential to understand its causes and search for public and institutional policies that can help reduce it. This research uses conventional and extended Cox survival models to analyze the factors behind dropout rates at a co-financed…

The United States has widely experimented with merit-based financial aid to make college more accessible and affordable for its youth. Varying in design and benefits, these state-run programs subsidize college costs for academically meritorious high-school graduates. While broadly linked to higher college attendance the distribution of aid…