tag: Stranded credits
Blog Post
April 17, 2025
How Is Kentucky Supporting Adult Learner Engagement?
A New Brief Shares Lessons Learned
Across the nation, there are 36.8 million individuals under the age of 65 with some college and no credential. Approximately 557,000 of these learners have stopped out from Kentucky colleges and universities. Re-enrolling adult learners with some college, no credential is a growing priority across the US and in Kentucky. Credential completion helps individuals get high paying jobs, brings in new tuition revenue for institutions, and helps regions develop a workforce needed for a healthy economy. Individuals and…
Issue Brief
April 17, 2025
Supporting Adult Learner Engagement in Kentucky
Addressing Administrative Holds, Past Due Balances, and Targeted Supports
Ithaka S+R and Kentucky CPE worked together to understand how administrative holds and unpaid balances affect institutions and adults with come credit, no credential. This reportsummarizes our key findings and offers potential solutions for institutions and states across the country, using examples from Kentucky. Part one covers administrative holds, part two focuses on past due balances, and part three discusses how institutions can adjust to the changing landscape of administrative holds.
Blog Post
January 14, 2025
Supporting Adult Learners and Boosting Degree Completion in Tennessee
Announcing a New Project
Ithaka S+R is excited to announce a collaboration with the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) to better understand the challenges faced by Tennesseans with some college but no credential who have been prevented from continuing their education due to administrative holds and past due balances, often called stranded credits. TBR governs the College System of Tennessee, the state’s public community and technical colleges. As a leader in state strategies to promote…
Blog Post
November 12, 2024
Improving Re-Enrollment for Adult Learners with Some College, No Degree
Announcing a New Project with the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education
As states and postsecondary institutions work to achieve critical degree attainment and workforce development goals, establishing policies and practices to effectively support adult learners who have some college but no degree is crucial. Through the statewide “Some College, No Degree” initiative, the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) is working to increase adult learner re-enrollment and degree completion in the state. Beginning fall 2024, the New Jersey OSHE and Ithaka S+R are working together to…
Blog Post
October 28, 2024
Turning Debt into Credentials
The Ohio College Comeback Compact Continues to Benefit Adult Learners, Institutions, and Northeast Ohio
After a successful pilot year and transition to full program implementation, the Ohio College Comeback Compact continues to show growth and positive student outcomes for adults with some college but no credential who departed postsecondary education with past due balances. With continued generous support from Lumina Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation, Ithaka S+R is pleased to continue partnering with the eight public colleges and universities in Northeast Ohio for the third year of the Compact.
Blog Post
October 10, 2024
Assessing Administrative Holds and Institutional Debts for Stopped Out Students
A New Project to Support Adult Learner Re-engagement in North Carolina
North Carolina is expanding higher education engagement efforts to adult learners. The University of North Carolina System has dedicated substantial resources to improve infrastructure and program delivery to enroll adult learners and re-engage those who have previously stopped out in their educational journeys. To support this ongoing work of reaching degree attainment and workforce development goals, Ithaka S+R is collaborating with the University of North Carolina (UNC) system office to analyze the scope of administrative holds for unpaid balances, which…
Blog Post
July 17, 2024
Institutions Are Shifting Practices to Comply with a Ban on Transcript Withholding
A new national ban on most transcript withholding took effect this month. The policy, which was announced in fall 2023, is intended to ensure students can access their academic records and minimize the number of credits which are stranded. The new rules direct institutions not to withhold transcripts for any academic terms in which a student received federal financial aid, if the student has fully paid or has a payment plan in place for any unpaid balance. This national ban…
Past Event
August 7, 2024
Engagement to Enrollment
State Approaches to Support Returning Adult Learners
Adult learners with Some College, No Credential (SCNC) frequently experience barriers to enrollment when they return to college, including administrative and financial challenges such as student account holds and past due balances. While many states have passed laws that prohibit or limit the use of transcript holds in recent years, new regulations from the Department of Education limit transcript withholding nationally as of July 2024. With this policy change as a foundation to the session, leaders from three states that…
Blog Post
May 9, 2024
From Debt to Degrees
Evaluating the Ohio College Comeback Compact
Across the US, the number of individuals who started college but stopped out before attaining a degree has continued to grow. Research shows that earning an associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, or a targeted credential has wide-ranging benefits, from increased lifetime earnings to improved health outcomes. Postsecondary institutions and regional economies also benefit when students re-enroll and complete programs. Returning students face unique challenges to re-enrollment and completion, and this is especially true for students with past-due balances at their…
Research Report
May 9, 2024
Removing the Institutional Debt Hurdle
Findings from an Evaluation of the Ohio College Comeback Compact
This report provides findings from the evaluation of the pilot year of the Ohio College Comeback Compact, an institutional debt cancellation program being implemented at eight public institutions in northeast Ohio. Administrative holds preventing re-enrollment leave students unable to realize the benefits of a postsecondary credential. Fortunately, a number of initiatives and policies, including the Ohio College Comeback Compact, have sought to alleviate this barrier for students.
Research Report
May 9, 2024
Second Chances
A Qualitative Assessment of the Ohio College Comeback Compact
While the rise of institution-specific debt forgiveness programs and state-level policies limiting transcript withholding is encouraging, a regional or national approach could benefit returning students on a wider scale. In response, Ithaka S+R developed a regional solution, the Ohio College Comeback Compact, which launched in August 2022, to address the problems posed by institutional debts and provide stopped-out students with an opportunity to complete their credential and have their debt forgiven.
Blog Post
April 25, 2024
Removing Barriers to Re-Enrollment for Adult Learners
Announcing A New Technical Assistance Project in Kentucky
In collaboration with the Kentucky Council for Postsecondary Education (CPE), Ithaka S+R is providing research and consulting to identify barriers to re-enrolling adult learners who have stopped out and assess intervention opportunities to improve adult learner re-enrollment in Kentucky. This project builds on Ithaka S+R’s prior research, implementation, and evaluation efforts to address stranded credits—credits that students have earned but cannot access because of administrative holds placed by the college or university they previously attended as collateral…
Past Event
May 1, 2024
Adult Learner Re-Engagement in Pennsylvania
Informational Webinar with PDE and Ithaka S+R
On Wednesday May 1 at 11:00am-12:00pm ET, join the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Ithaka S+R for a webinar providing practical information on how higher education institutions in Pennsylvania can better support adult learners. By working with students to resolve past due balances and administrative holds, institutions are able to enroll students who were previously blocked from returning to college. Register to attend by Friday, April 19 to learn about strategies to engage, enroll, and support adult…
Blog Post
February 13, 2024
No Longer Stranded?
How New Department of Education Rule Creates Opportunities for Students and Institutions
In 2020, Ithaka S+R estimated that approximately 6.6 million students did not have access to their educational transcripts due to past due balances, resulting in stranded credits. This challenge may impact any student, but our research indicated it was more likely to affect students who identified as women, racial and ethnic minorities, and those from low-income backgrounds. During our initial investigation of stranded credits, we found that nearly all higher education institutions used transcript holds as a tool to…
Blog Post
November 30, 2023
Improving Data Collection and Management Practices to Understand Stranded Credits
Institutional debt is an understudied and overlooked type of student debt that hinders stopped-out students’ ability to complete or further their education. This specific debt often results in “stranded credits”—earned credits that students cannot access because their former institution is withholding their transcript or blocking registration until they settle their unpaid balance. Institution record systems are not designed to facilitate easy access to understanding who is affected by stranded credits. But, with small changes and greater collaboration, institutions…
Blog Post
November 9, 2023
Who Has Stranded Credits?
Insights from a New Ithaka S+R Survey
In August 2022, the Ohio College Comeback Compact (“Ohio Compact” or “Compact”) was launched to offer a pathway to re-enrollment for stopped-out college students with stranded credits in the Northeast Ohio region. The Compact allows stopped-out students to return to any of the eight participating public colleges and universities despite owing institutional debt and having their transcript withheld. Through the Compact, students are eligible to receive up to $5,000 in debt forgiveness and a release of their transcript…
Research Report
November 9, 2023
Institutional Supports for Students with Stranded Credits
Survey Results from the Ohio College Comeback Compact
As of 2023, 43.6 million borrowers owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. The burden of debt negatively impacts borrowers' ability to provide for their families, purchase a car, or buy a home. However, there is another, often overlooked, institutional debt that students may owe their former institutions after stopping out. It is estimated that 6.6 million students owe $15 billion in unpaid balances to their institutions.
Blog Post
November 8, 2023
Op-Ed in The Hill Highlights Opportunities Following Education Department’s New Transcript Withholding Ban
Almost exactly three years after Ithaka S+R first published national research on “stranded credits”—credits that students have earned but can’t access because their college is holding their transcript and blocking registration until they pay a balance due—the federal government is on the verge of eliminating transcript withholding as a debt collection practice. In a new op-ed in The Hill, we discuss a package of regulations issued by the US Education Department and aimed at protecting beneficiaries of…
Blog Post
September 27, 2023
After Successful Pilot, the Ohio College Comeback Compact Moves to Full Implementation
The Ohio College Comeback Compact successfully concluded its pilot year, demonstrating proof of concept for a novel program aimed at re-enrolling college students with stranded credits and settling the institutional debt they owed their former institutions. The Compact is advancing to a full implementation at the eight original public colleges and universities in Northeast Ohio for the 2023-24 academic year. And, with generous support from Lumina Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation, Ithaka S+R will be…
Past Event
November 8, 2023
Four Perspectives on Re-Enrolling Adult Learners and Supporting Them Through Completion
In this session at the CAEL Conference on November 8 at 1:40-2:30pm ET in Key Ballroom 1, panelists will discuss the challenges they see and their approaches to supporting adults to complete their postsecondary education. Ithaka S+R’s Liz Looker will speak on stranded credits and Ithaka S+R’s projects to support adult learners seeking to complete their credentials, including the Ohio College Comeback Compact. Other panelists include Steve Ast, Mike Krause, and Dr. Mark Sorrells. Learn more about the…