Presents findings on the changes in borrowing related to the 1992 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Between academic years 1989-1990 and 1995-1996, the total dollar volume in federal student loans doubled, increasing from about $13 billion to about $28 billion. Describes key changes in student borrowing. (SLD)

Discusses the history of student financial aid's emergence as a major issue in American education, including why a policy of financial assistance was initiated, what it sought to accomplish, how national priorities influence those policies, and its current status. Explores how the shift from grants to loans is influencing access, underrepresented…

Presents results of an empirical investigation of Canadian student loans for four recent cohorts of graduates. Data include proportion of students graduating with loans and average amounts borrowed, loan burden measured by debt-to-earning ratios, repayment rates following graduation, and number of graduates reporting loan difficulties. Results are…

Describes how a federal program let a California for-profit institution, the Masters Institute, expand its distance education offerings, but then led to its closure because of findings of financial aid fraud. (EV)

This study analyzed the impact of specific types of financial aid on students' college choice, with particular focus on racial differences. For overall student populations, the receipt of grants or a combination of grants with loans had a positive impact on attending first choice institutions. In contrast, having loans only had no significant…

Lawmakers say that the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 will reduce regulatory burden, bring costs down, and broaden access to higher education. Features of the law are explained, including student aid programs and delivery provisions, student-loan program changes, and college reporting requirements. Miscellaneous other provisions are…

In order to participate in federal student financial aid programs, law schools must be accredited by an agency recognized by the Department of Education (Education). Accreditation is intended to ensure that schools provide basic levels of quality in their educational programs, and Education recognizes those accrediting agencies that it concludes…

Federal Student Aid's core mission is to ensure that all eligible Americans benefit from federal financial assistance--grants, loans and work-study programs--for education beyond high school. The programs administered comprise the nation's largest source of student aid: during the 2007-08 school year alone, approximately $83 billion in new aid was…

On September 7, 2007, Congress enacted H.R. 2669, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which will raise the maximum Pell Grant to $5,400 over five years and halve interest rates on subsidized student loans. The act is part of the budget reconciliation process, which secured billions of dollars for increasing Pell Grants and for reducing…

Five years have passed since the U.S. Census Bureau published synthetic estimates of work-life earnings by educational attainment. This paper updates those figures with the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau's annual Current Population Surveys, and adds net present value analysis of the financial benefit of a college degree to the…

2Futuro is a new "Spanish-first" college-financing program rolled out by Sallie Mae and USA Funds. The pilot version of 2Futuro launched last summer and is, say its partnering agents, "the only fully bilingual college-financing and outreach program that enables Hispanic parents and students to apply for college loans in Spanish. By the end of the…

The second edition of the "ES Review" brings together, in one setting, abridged versions of research reports, outside articles and op-eds, book reviews, and other Education Sector publications. The 2007 edition features: (1) K-12 Accountability (Laboratories of Reform: Virtual High Schools and Innovation in Public Education (Bill…

This report presents an assessment of the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and the new Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP) by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (ACSFA), along with recommendations to help improve FFELP and FDLP. It found that congressional priorities and the…

This report examines the effectiveness of recent federal government efforts through amendments to the Higher Education Act (1993) to reduce student loan defaults. Key measures to curb defaults had been to make schools with high student loan default rates ineligible for federal student loan programs. However, many institutions have challenged…

This directory lists over 1,200 merit and other no-need funding and scholarship programs open to students in college and students returning to college for their higher education in the United States. The programs are classified according to course of study in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, or any subject area. Programs reward…