Posts Categorized: Student Aid

Autumn Almanac

NEBHE’s annual fall meetings explored the federal Higher Education Act and aligning state policy with higher ed … The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) held its annual fall board meeting last month in Mystic, Conn. In a session on reauthorization of the federal Higher Education Act (HEA), Sarah H. Flanagan, vice president for government relations and policy development...

Evidence-Based Research: The Impact of the College Crusade GEAR UP Program in RI

The federal GEAR UP program in Rhode Island led to large advantages for students who participated in the program in terms of persistence through the middle and high school years, high school graduation and college enrollment. The Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program, more commonly known as GEAR UP, is a product of federal legislation designed to increase high school c...

Scholarship Group Unveils Policy Agenda With Heart

After nearly 60 years of helping students afford college, Scholarship America unveiled its first public policy agenda offering a refreshing focus on “advancing equity in postsecondary education and strengthening support for low-to-moderate income students.” The priorities: Expand public-private partnerships Look to the private sector for experimentation, innovation and best practice...

Dean of Women’s Deans (Book Review)

Deans of Women and the Feminist Movement: Emily Taylor’s Activism; Kelly C. Sartorius; Palgrave MacMillan Press (Historical Studies in Education) St. Martin’s Press; 2014. Remember when every coeducational college or university had a “Dean of Women”? It was a powerful and influential position, at least for the “coeds” under her charge (and it was always “her”). The dean of women...

Trying Times for “HEIs”

It’s an especially bruising time for New England colleges and universities, which we now call higher education institutions (HEIs)—to cover all the new varieties and hybrids. NEBHE has noted that the HEIs face threats based on shifts in academic content and delivery (increasingly online), student demography (diversifying but shrinking) and institutional finances (challenged). Plus, consid...

Counterbalancing Student Debt with “Asset Empowerment” and Economic Mobility

Education provides one of the best opportunities for American children to build the capacity to climb up the economic ladder. It has even been called the “great equalizer” in American society. In today’s tightened labor market, providing equal access to postsecondary education is more critical than ever. The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce projects that 70% of jobs by 2020 w...

Collaborating on Tuition and Financial Aid Is Critical to the Region

College affordability is an increasingly important public policy issue. With decision-making power over funding to institutions, funding to students and the pricing of institutions, states play a tremendous role in determining what students pay for college. In New England, these decisions are spread across institutional boards, system offices, state agencies and state legislatures. The processes f...

Small Colleges Can Survive Despite Challenging Circumstances

Times are tough for institutions that do not have access to substantial endowment funds or benefit from a top ranking position. Whether with a rural or metropolitan setting, a large number of colleges are discovering that there is a limit to raising tuition prices. Prospective students no longer automatically queue up. And once the “at risk” notice is up, the perceived deficiency becom...

The Death of Teaching … and Birth of Learning

Forget disruption. This is the age of chaos in higher education. First MOOCs. Now Sweet Briar. Seemingly every day brings a new moment where we must confront the reality that we no longer know how to control nor predict what higher education will become. And with this lack of control comes a flailing for next steps, any steps, in an attempt to secure our future. We suggest that there is a way t...

New Way to Break Down Barriers to Higher Education: Build “Financial Capabilities”

Community colleges have traditionally responded to the financial needs of their students by removing or minimizing financial barriers to attending. Efforts to make community college tuition free fit with this philosophy. But where efforts to minimize or remove financial barriers to attending community college fall short is in empowering students to navigate the next financial crossroads they encou...