With the total student debt in the United States at nearly $1.5 trillion, loans are affecting the lives of many students. But while higher education pays off for the average graduate, the student loan data illustrates a unique and severe situation for Black students that has reached crisis level, even if the same isn't true for other racial and…

Nearly four million undergraduates, or more than one in five college students, are parents of children under 18. These student parents face--in normal times--disproportionate economic insecurity, difficulty meeting basic needs, and significant time and caregiving demands. Student parents are now coping with the closing of colleges and…

The "60x30TX" higher education plan for Texas began in 2015 with four goals to be achieved by 2030: (1) 60x30 Educated Population: At least 60% of Texans ages 25-34 will have a certificate or degree; (2) Completion: At least 550,000 students in 2030 will complete a certificate or an associate, bachelor's, or master's degree from an…

Financial aid is an ever-growing topic of interest to researchers as well as policymakers in understanding the impact and relationship to student success. Aid comes in many forms, from merit-based or need-based scholarships and grants, loans, tuition waivers, and other. Federal and state aid programs alike are typically designed to assist students…

For nearly 50 years, the cost of higher education has risen faster than the pace of inflation, with federal student aid contributing to increasing tuition. In 1987, Secretary of Education William J. Bennett penned a "New York Times" article, "Our Greedy Colleges," in which he wrote, "If anything, increases in financial aid…

A previous "Evidence Speaks" report described the high rates at which student loan borrowers default on their repayment within 12 years of initial college entry, often on relatively modest amounts of debt. A striking pattern emerging from that and other prior work is how dramatically default rates vary by institution sector and by…

This review explores the expanding role of federal aid policy considered from a contemporary and social justice perspective. It highlights recent trends in aid policy as well as difficulties that arise from the current system. Next, the review takes up an analysis of current aid policy that carefully considers equity and efficiency as primary…

There is currently a great deal of interest in the potential of reductions in or elimination of the cost of college attendance for students (here referred to as college subsidies) to increase equitable access to higher education. A number of Democratic presidential candidates have advanced proposals for such programs. However, because colleges and…

The authors investigate the relationship between undergraduate economics coursework or majoring in economics and the debt behavior of the college graduates. The data come from the Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) longitudinal survey of the National Center for Education Statistics. College graduates who took courses in undergraduate economics or…

The Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) provides a snapshot of student financial wellbeing during the fall of 2021. Over 700,000 students were surveyed from 104 schools in 25 states and 63,751 students responded. During this period Federal stimulus funding helped stabilize finances for many students, but many still struggled to make ends…

Privatization of higher education in India is the outcome of increased demand, especially from the growing middle-income families, and the inability of state governments to step up public funding for higher education. This has resulted in rising enrolment in private unaided institutions, which increased from 25 percent in 2000-2001 to 58 percent…

This empirical study uses the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) to investigate the characteristics of households that hold at least one loan for educational expenses. The benefit of using household-level data is that a single household may have education loans for multiple people in the household, including the household head, spouse/partner,…

Student debt is a national concern. The authors address debt in the classroom to enhance students' understanding of the consequences of debt and the need for caution when financing their education. However, student feedback indicates this understanding has a delayed effect on borrowing behavior and underscores the importance of making difficult…

For all the attention student loans have received in the media and from policymakers in recent years, there is still remarkably little information on why and how borrowers struggle to repay them. Rising college prices and debt levels explain some of the troubles borrowers have with their loans, as does a slow economic recovery that has caused…

A common misperception suggests that a high-achieving student can easily complete a degree with very limited debt, and that students with high levels of debt are thus underachievers. This assumption is supported by memories of previous decades when it was realistically possible for most students to work their way through college. This view,…