Nearly all educational programs which receive federal funding are vulnerable to budget cuts. Educators need to view budget reductions in terms of economic priorities. Education must be seen as part of the economic productivity, social fabric, and security of the nation. (JN)

A recent Education Department report reveals the nation's student loan default rate was the lowest ever in 1994, at less than half the rate of 1990. New enforcement power, improved collections, and an improving economy are credited with the change. However, high default rates threaten the right of over 300 colleges and universities to participate…

Describes how a debate over increasing the limits on student loans--rather than spending more on grants--is growing, as reauthorization time approaches for the federal Higher Education Act. (EV)

The introduction to the collection of papers produced for or generated by a 1988 symposium titled "Law Student Debt, the Salary 'Gap' and Their Impact on the Legal Profession" notes the response of New York University (which adopted a loan forgiveness program) to the dilemma posed by the symposium. (DB)

This article investigates the extent to which student borrowers might be induced to prepay by an offer from the government to share a portion of its savings expected from prepayment. The analysis suggests that potential savings are not likely to be large enough to induce significant prepayment. (Author/MLW)

An institutional research model used at Washington University is outlined and other practical suggestions are offered to financial aid administrators inclined to conduct similar research. The original study assessed the effects of loans on students after leaving school. (MSE)

This article urges the financing of higher education by the Tuition Advance Fund, under which any undergraduate degree candidate is advanced money to pay for his or her education. The money is later repaid through a payroll-withholding tax administered by the Internal Revenue Service. It argues that such a plan would be an improvement in both…

Focuses on a specific federal credit program (the guaranteed student loan program), using the Engle and Granger two-step procedure to estimate an error correction model of commercial student loan supply. Results indicate that the secondary market is an important determinant of commercial student loan lending and that commercial supply is inelastic…

A recent report states that financial aid to college students rose 7.9 percent from 1990-91 to 1991-92, about the same rate as college costs. However, slow growth in income has created more need. Data on sources of student aid, aid recipients and average awards for selected programs, and trends in aid sources from 1982-83 to 1991-92 are charted.…

Rapid, inadequately funded expansion of British higher education between 1990-96 contributed to a funding crisis. This paper, an updated version of a report submitted to the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, proposes a coherent reform strategy involving a wide-ranging system of student loans, flexibility to allow universities to…

Analyzed contemporaneous documents and interviewed participants; concluded that the National Federation of Canadian University Students (NFCUS) and the Canadian Union of Students (CUS) were instrumental in engendering mass student aid programs and low tuition fees. Although government creation of such programs co-opted catalysts of student…

Used National Postsecondary Student Aid Study data to examine how debtload influenced undergraduate persistence decisions at public and private colleges. Tuition prices had a significant negative effect on persistence, though that effect decreased from 1987-93 in all cases. At every level, private school students were more sensitive to the effects…

This report describes the educational experiences, labour market outcomes and financing of higher education of recent graduates for Canadian postsecondary education institutions using data from the 2007 National Graduates Survey (Class of 2005). The first section describes the characteristics of graduates from college, bachelor, master and…

America's financial aid system provides too much taxpayer support to banks making college loans, demands too little of students assuming them, and burdens families with too much debt. The system fails to reward rigorous college-preparatory work in high school and penalizes students who hold jobs while in college. Lenders make extraordinary…