As Congress gears up to head home for the holiday season, proponents who have hoped to see a breakthrough on the long-running issue of expanding Pell Grants to career-training programs lasting fewer than 15 weeks have received an early gift—a bipartisan deal in the House. Key lawmakers in both parties have wrangled for years over the expansion,...

Before filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, applicants must first determine their dependency status – which dictates whose information needs to be submitted on the form. An undergraduate student can’t simply choose to file as an independent on the FAFSA, the application that most schools use to determine fin...

At 19, Elizabeth Clews knew attending community college while balancing a full-time job and caring for a newborn would be hard. But she wanted to give it a shot. After a few months, the single mom, who had just exited the foster care system, realized she wasn’t doing well enough to pass her classes at…

Colleges and universities in at least eight states could lose a total of between $970 million and $1.3 billion in scholarship funding under a new rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The states have been misusing funds from the federal welfare program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families that were intended to h...

Inside Higher Ed published a new special report, “Modernizing Postsecondary Policy to Better Support Adult Learners,” with insight provided by HLA’s Julie Peller, executive director, and Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, managing director of policy and research. This free, print-on-demand report explores how current federal and state policies can ...

Fourteen thousand students dropped out of the Austin Community College District in Texas during the last two academic years. But the institution of more than 36,000 students has a plan to get some of them back. Supported by a $770,765 Education Department grant, that plan involves reaching out to students and connecting them with career…

Ivy League colleges are under growing pressure to broaden their student base by using admission policies that increase the proportion of low- and moderate-income students on campuses and raise their rate of socioeconomic mobility. A new report, released Tuesday by the HEA Group, a research and consulting firm focused on college access and success, ...

“President Joe Biden pledged to double the maximum Pell Grant by 2029, but his recent debt ceiling deal is seemingly at odds with that plan. Biden’s deal struck with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy places spending caps on discretionary spending for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. Factoring in projected inflation over the next two years, the ...

Measuring ROI in Higher Education “In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Julie Peller of Higher Learning Advocates about accountability, ROI in higher education, and the future of the for-profit sector. Julie Peller is the Executive Director of Higher Learning Advocates. She also served as the Deputy Staff Director for the House C...

SAP Requirements Create Barriers to Underserved Students “The brief examines how current SAP policies can be confusing for many students, such as those who are new to college and arrive academically underprepared, do not receive proper advising, or face unexpected life challenges. Institutions can create their own SAP requirements, but at min...

“Representative Virginia Foxx is planning to leverage the decline in public perception of higher education to usher in a new era of stronger accountability for the nation’s colleges and universities in her role as chairwoman of the House education committee. This is ‘exactly the right time’ to reauthorize the Higher Education Act of 196...

“If officials at the U.S. Department of Education hoped the ‘listening sessions’ they arranged this week would provide consensus on whether to stop letting colleges pay outside companies a share of tuition revenue when they help recruit students, they were surely disappointed. Like just about every policy discussion in Washington these da...