Posts Categorized: Trends

DC Shuttle: Lawmakers Agree to Hold Down Loan Rates, Penalize For-Profits Where Repayment Lags; Officials Mark Land Grants at 150

With time ticking down, lawmakers voted to keep student loan interest rate for federally subsidized Stafford loans at 3.4% for another year, attaching the compromise language, formerly H.R. 4628, to the highway bill (H.R. 4348). The measure passed the House and Senate on Friday. Had Congress not acted, the current authorization subsidizing student loan rates was set to expire June 30. and th...

A New White Noise? NEBHE Partners With AIR.U to Deploy Super Wi-Fi Networks in College Communities

A consortium of higher education associations, public interest groups and high-tech companies today announced a new partnership called AIR.U (Advanced Internet Regions) to deploy Super Wi-Fi networks in university communities by taking advantage of unused television channels, known as white spaces.Home to 291 two- and four-year postsecondary institutions that enrolled more than 990,000 students in...

DC Shuttle: Parties Tangle Over Student Loan Rates as Deadline Nears

With a June 30 deadline quickly approaching, lawmakers are running out of time to prevent student loan rates from doubling. Leadership from both parties has said that a compromise will be coming before the deadline and suggested on Friday that they are close to a deal. In 2007, Congress approved PL 110-84, which gradually reduced loan interest rates over four years. but expires July 1. The is...

OECD Invites New England Higher Ed Leaders, Students to Paris for Conference on “Mass Higher Education”

The OECD invites New England higher education leaders to attend its Programme for Institutional Management in Higher Education's 2012 General Conference on “Attaining and Sustaining Mass Higher Education” to be held from Sept. 17 to Sept. 19 in Paris.The conference will examine: Where have we got to in attaining and sustaining mass higher education? What can higher education contribu...

DC Shuttle: STEM’ing Immigration; Measuring Higher Ed Productivity; Funding Upward Bound

Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced legislation Wednesday to create a new category of student visas for those studying in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. The bill would create a new category of non-immigrant visa for foreign students pursuing a master's degree or doctorate in the STEM fields in the U.S. Those students would have one yea...

Mass. Rehab Commission to Hold NE Symposium on Vets and Higher Ed Success

The Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission will hold a symposium on Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury Ensuring Success in Higher Education, at Salem State University on Wednesday, June 6 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.The symposium is designed to educate college and university staff who work with veterans to ensure their success in pursuing higher education. The event is open to all colleges and uni...

No Vacancy (Survey, That Is)

NEBHE conducted a Student Vacancy Survey every spring from 1960 to 2009 as a public service for New England residents still looking for college space as of the traditional May 1 admissions deadline and as a measure of college application trends. A few years ago, we determined to ease out of the vacancy survey business and its vagaries; some respondents had noted that even if there were X-number...

DC Shuttle: How to Pay for Student Loan Interest Rate Extension

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked a motion to proceed on the Senate Democrats' bill (S. 2343) to extend current interest rates on federal student loans for one year. With a vote of 52-45, the cloture motion failed to garner the needed 60 votes to proceed. Republicans objected to Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) refusal to allow a vote on the Republicans' alternative legislation (S. 2366). ...

DC Shuttle: To Hold Down Student Loan Interest Rates, Congress Weighs Cuts to Health Law, Closing Tax Benefits for Oil and Gas Cos.

On Wednesday, Senate Democrats introduced a bill (S. 2343) to extend the current interest rate on subsidized student loans for one year beyond the July 1 expiration date. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the cost of a one-year extension to be $6 billion, which the bill would pay for by ending a tax benefit for S corporations. Under the bill, shareholders of these corporations w...

Heap of Debt: Will Student Loan Interest Rates Go Up?

Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards, auto loans and mortgages, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S. Department of Education. For the first time, student loans taken out in 2011 exceeded $100 billion with total student loans surpassing $1 trillion. Mounting student debt has forced many students to drop out, resulting in the low college-complet...