In Chapter 1 I investigate the supply of college majors and how this facet of institutional behavior influences student outcomes and costs in higher education. As a first contribution, I identify a decades-long trend in 4-year postsecondary education in the United States--the production of bachelor's degrees measured by their concentration across…

Student debt is growing, as is the mental health crisis among Black borrowers. While the situation is dire, it is also a byproduct of failed and intentionally racist policies going back generations, which means it can be solved by better public policies. This brief is the second in a four-part series using qualitative data from the National Black…

According to the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC), the number of high school students enrolled at Georgia institutions of higher education has increased by 88% over the past 4 years and spending on dual enrollment programs has more than doubled during that period. As enrollment continues to increase, the Governor has enacted legislation…

We update Collier et al. (2021) by using the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) 2019 dataset to explore characteristics of enrollees in Income-Driven Repayment (IDR). SCF 2019 is more likely to include borrowers engaged in REPAYE. Findings support an ongoing need to encourage greater IDR participation for lowest-income borrowers and reinforced…

When a college closes, it can derail the education of many students, leaving them with loans but no degree. Those who cannot complete their education may be eligible to have their federal student loans forgiven through a "closed school discharge" from the Department of Education (Education), but this process has changed in recent years.…

Policymakers have expressed increased interest in program-level higher education accountability measures as a supplement to, or in place of, institution-level metrics. But it is unclear what these measures should look like. In this report, we assess the ways program-level data could be developed to facilitate federal accountability. Evidence shows…

Purpose: In an effort to boost participation in vocational education and training (VET), in 2009, the Australian Government launched its VET FEE-HELP income-contingent loan programme for VET students. The programme was terminated in 2016 following numerous failed attempts to arrest its escalating costs and improve its performance. In an effort to…

Currently, Vietnam is adopting a cost-sharing policy for public higher education. A dual mechanism of tuition fees has been introduced: (i) the tuition fee covers part of the instruction cost; and (ii) the tuition fee covers the full instruction cost. Despite this, Vietnamese public universities still face a shortage of income for maintaining good…

The student debt crisis is particularly dire for Black borrowers. Black degree-seekers are more likely to take out student loans to pay for higher education than white students, and they carry the largest average student loan debt of all racial demographics in the nation. The COVID-19 pandemic has created even more barriers to both postsecondary…

Through the higher education act (HEA) reauthorization, congress has several opportunities to improve and simplify student loan repayment for borrowers. To address the challenges students face when repaying their loans, congress should simplify the existing federal loan repayment plans, strengthen public service loan forgiveness, eliminate loan…

Student debt levels were already pronounced before the pandemic hit, with $91.1 billion in annual federal student lending in 2019-20, up from $20.7 billion in 1990-91. Over that same period, per-student borrowing rose from $2,110 to $6,276, after adjusting for inflation. Evidence available as of Nov. 20, 2021, suggests that the COVID-19 downturn…

This dissertation investigates the complex connections among loan debt burden, student experiences, and post-bachelor's outcomes, situated within the framework of systemic disparities in educational funding and opportunities. It identifies declines in state funding across educational levels as a systemic and politicized issue, disproportionately…

Higher education researchers have paid little attention to postgraduate participation. This issue has become more prominent in England following the introduction of high undergraduate fees. Many predicted that master's participation would decline consequently, strengthening known inequalities in access by socio-economic background at master's…

Policymakers have been debating the Bennett Hypothesis--whether colleges increase tuition after the federal government increases access to student loans--for decades. Yet most of the prior research has focused on studying small changes to loan limits or Pell Grants for undergraduate students. In this study, I examine whether business schools (the…

The volume and number of federal student loans, which provide financing to make higher education more accessible, have grown over the past few decades. In 2017, the most recent year for which detailed information was available, $96 billion in new federal student loans was disbursed to 8.6 million students, compared with $36 billion (in 2017…