Topic: Higher education costs
Past Event
September 23, 2022
Adequacy in Higher Education Funding Convening
On September 23, Sarah Pingel will participate in a convening hosted by Advance Illinois and Complete College America, bringing experts together to unpack Adequacy in Higher Education Funding and examine the possibilities and complexities of adequacy funding for two-year and four-year public institutions. Attendees include national and state higher education funding experts, researchers, academics, policymakers, advocates, and institutional and agency leaders.
Blog Post
August 31, 2022
The Importance and Risks of Institutional Borrowing
New Report with TIAA Institute
While student loan debt has ballooned to over $1.7 trillion, institutional debt, or money colleges and universities borrow as organizations, is frequently overlooked as a significant factor in higher education finance. With support from the TIAA Institute, Ithaka S+R examined institutional borrowing practices. Specifically, we examined how periods of crisis and financial strain impact the decision to borrow and identified institutional characteristics linked to growth in debt levels during the 2008 Great Recession.
Research Report
August 30, 2022
Borrowing During a Time of Crisis
Examining Institutional Debt During the Great Recession and COVID-19
Although a great deal of attention is paid to student debt, colleges and universities have increased their institutional debt substantially over the past several decades. While institutional borrowing is an important tool colleges can use to meet strategic goals, unchecked or irresponsible debts can undercut a college’s ability to adequately serve students. Ithaka S+R conducted a mixed methods study, with the generous support of the TIAA Institute, to better understand how institutional borrowing decisions are made during periods of crisis.
Past Event
September 8, 2022
The State of Affordability in Higher Ed: State Aid’s Role in Student Success
Come To Believe Network Panel
On Thursday, September 8 at 1-2 pm ET, Ithaka S+R Senior Researcher Sarah Pingel will participate in a panel discussion on the importance of state grant aid in higher education, hosted by the Come To Believe Network. The event will feature a research presentation on the impact of grant aid by Brent Evans and will a discussion with state aid providers in Illinois and Minnesota, as well as national stakeholders, including Jacqueline Moreno, Meghan Flores, and Frank Ballman. Register for…
Blog Post
August 15, 2022
Stranded Credits: State-Level Actions and Opportunities
Over the past several years, state and federal regulators have increasingly scrutinized the practice of transcript withholding. As of June 15, 2022, five states have pending bills and eight states have enacted bills that prohibit postsecondary institutions from withholding transcripts. Without transcript holds, students will be able to re-enroll in college, transfer to an institution that better fits their needs, apply for jobs that require postsecondary degrees, and potentially be in a better position to pay off their educational debt.
Blog Post
August 2, 2022
New Opportunity for Stopped-Out College Students in Northeast Ohio to Settle Debt and Access Stranded Credits
Ohio College Comeback Compact Launches Summer 2022
Thousands of college students in Northeast Ohio who left school without a degree and owe money to their former college now have a pathway back to settle the debt and continue their education. Beginning this month, the Ohio College Comeback Compact is contacting approximately 15,000 students with a new proposition: come back to any public college in the region, even if you owe money and your transcript is being held because of it. Eligible students who…
Past Event
July 27, 2022
Benefit Pros Weigh In: Unpacking the Limited PSLF Waiver
On Wednesday, July 27 at 1:00 pm ET, Ithaka S+R's Managing Director Catherine Bond Hill will discuss the Limited Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Waiver and what it means for nonprofits and public sector employers, as well as benefit advisors and employees, as part of a virtual panel. Other panelists will include Dr. Grace Ingram, Paul Joo, and moderator Bridget Haile. Learn more about the webinar, hosted by Summer, here.
Issue Brief
July 7, 2022
Lost and Found: State and Institutional Actions to Resolve Stranded Credits
This brief provides a roadmap for stakeholders interested in the underlying practices that create stranded credits and what can be done to improve them. To begin, we provide specific definitions of the terms and practices implicated in the creation of stranded credits. While researchers and policy leaders have increased their attention on the problem of stranded credits, this brief lays out in detail how they are created, why they matter, and what can be done to better balance the interests.
Blog Post
June 14, 2022
Forgive and Forget? Understanding the Impact of State-Funded Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
While student loan forgiveness is trending at the federal level, little attention has been directed towards learning from state approaches or the impact that federal forgiveness could have on state policy and practice. While not all states have programs, some have loan forgiveness options that pre-date the main federal program, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or PSLF. Twenty states operated state-funded student loan forgiveness programs in 2020, spending over $65 million to forgive or partially repay students’ loans. …
Blog Post
March 31, 2022
Understanding the Impacts of Emergency Micro-Grants on Student Success
Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, many college students across the country faced challenges in meeting their basic needs, including access to food, housing, childcare, and transportation. These barriers, combined with rising prices relative to income and grant aid, are a key reason that over 36 million former students have left college without earning their degree. The pandemic has exacerbated students’ financial issues, and many more have chosen not…
Blog Post
March 10, 2022
A Preliminary Analysis of Debt Forgiveness Programs
The COVID-19 pandemic spotlighted the ever-increasing amount and crushing effects of student debt, including debts owed directly to postsecondary institutions. In an earlier report, Solving Stranded Credits, we estimated that roughly 6.6 million students owe over $15 billion in unpaid balances to colleges and universities in the United States. The weight of institutional debt can leave students feeling defeated, forcing many to avoid pursuing postsecondary education altogether. On a national scale, these debts…
Blog Post
January 18, 2022
Turning on the TAP
Restoring Tuition Assistance for Incarcerated Students in New York
In her first State of the State address since taking office, New York Governor Kathy Hochul outlined an agenda that included repealing the 27-year ban on college tuition assistance, also known as TAP, for incarcerated students. In 1995, when the ban was first instituted, incarcerated students accounted for less than 1 percent of TAP funding state-wide. The ban dovetailed with the 1994 Crime Bill’s elimination of federal Pell grants for incarcerated students and…
Past Event
December 14, 2021
Understanding Research Cores: An Overview of a Critical Component of Research Infrastructure
Roger Schonfeld at CNI Fall 2021 Membership Meeting
On December 14, Roger Schonfeld will present at the CNI Fall 2021 Membership Meeting on Ithaka S + R’s new report, “What is a Research Core? A Primer on a Critical Component of the Research Enterprise” that illuminates the research core landscape. Research cores, sometimes also referred to as core instrumentation facilities, are shared research enablement facilities that are used on a cross-department if not institutional basis. Notwithstanding pandemic disruptions, trends to improve research support for academic science are taking…
Blog Post
December 8, 2021
A Sustainable Solution to Settle Students’ Debt and Release Stranded Credits
Ithaka S+R and Eight Ohio Public Institutions Announce Promising New Pilot
Since publishing our first report on the subject in October 2020, Ithaka S+R has been at the forefront of defining the problem of stranded credits. We are now moving ahead with testing a potentially groundbreaking solution. “Stranded credits” are credits that students have earned but can’t access because their former institution is holding their transcript as collateral for an unpaid balance to the institution. Ninety-five percent of…
Research Report
December 6, 2021
What Is a Research Core?
A Primer on a Critical Component of the Research Enterprise
As clusters of state-of-the-art instruments and research enablement services, research cores are not only the cornerstone of research activities at university campuses but also critical assets that provide competitive differentiation for their host institutions. However, these research cores are highly expensive for academic institutions to manage. Despite the growing recognition and impact of these research cores, there are few studies that describe the business models for sustaining and funding research cores or their increasing significance to the larger academic community.
Past Event
November 4, 2021
Institutions in Debt: Understanding Borrowing during Periods of Crisis
James Ward at Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Annual Conference
On November 4, James Ward will present preliminary findings on Understanding Institutional Borrowing during a Time of Crisis at the 2021 Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Annual Conference…
Blog Post
November 10, 2021
Unpacking the Effects of Increasing Pell Grants
The Pell Grant is America’s most prominent tool to promote college access and affordability for low- and middle-income students. With a substantial increase in the maximum Pell award under consideration by Congress, a natural question is how that increase is likely to impact the access and affordability goals of the program. The answer, it turns out, depends a lot on the college or university at which a Pell recipient uses the grant. In a new…
Past Event
December 14, 2021
Danielle Cooper at CNI Fall 2021 Membership Meeting
On December 14th, Danielle Cooper will present on “Licensing Privacy: Contractual Language and the Challenge of Monitoring Compliance” at the Fall 2021 CNI Membership Meeting. For more information on this event, please visit this website. Abstract The Licensing Privacy initiative, made possible in part by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to improve how academic libraries leverage licensing terms to advocate for reader privacy. In fall 2021, the Licensing Privacy initiative released: (1) “View from Library…
Issue Brief
November 9, 2021
No “One Size Fits All” Impact of Doubling Pell Grants
Understanding the Impact of Changing the Maximum Pell Grant on Low- and Middle-Income Students
As policy makers consider revisions to the Higher Education Act (HEA), understanding the impact of increasing the size of Pell grants is important if it is to have the intended impact of improving educational outcomes for lower income students across the various types of colleges and universities. Proposals to increase the Pell grant have been put forward by the Education Trust, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Urban Institute, the Biden administration, and many others. House Republicans have…
Past Event
October 7, 2021
New Directions in Scholarly Publishing
Roger Schonfeld presents during Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) virtual panel
On October 7, Roger Schonfeld will join other panelists to discuss new funding opportunities for researchers and librarians. The panel will discuss how “how authors— especially early career authors—are required to navigate this new funding landscape, how librarians must consider new mandates and requirements from funding agencies while supporting the interests and needs of researchers within their respective institutions, and how funding as we know it is dynamically changing the landscape of academic research.” For more information, please visit this…