Access and Affordability

A bipartisan bill intended to improve college access and graduation rates would impose college-loan program penalties on institutions that perform poorly in these areas. The federal government allocates approximately $180 billion annually in federal student aid and tax benefits to help low- and middle-income students, according to a report released by the bill’s sponsors, U.S. […]

What: Events aimed at creating a college-going culture in local ethnic communities, where attendees can get direction on career choice, applying to college, and paying for college. Community leaders and current Des Moines Area Community College students are often involved in planning and sharing stories. At the end of the evening, a scholarship drawing is […]

Recent research studies have begun to recognize males as a new “at-risk” population. Achieving gender balance means different things to different institutions. Technical programs with STEM-heavy curricula have traditionally struggled to attract female enrollments (though women are fast making inroads into these fields). Large public universities and smaller liberal arts colleges, on the other hand, […]

Almost all U.S. colleges and universities now award certificates, digital badges and other forms of microcredentials so students can quickly show an employer specialized skills they’ve acquired. Driving this fast-growing trend are workforce millennials who want to learn, for instance, how to operate an Amazon delivery drone or repair a self-driving car without having to […]

Need-based financial aid was supposed to give everyone an opportunity to get into college and better their lives and career prospects. But that assistance is not always applied as intended, says the third edition of New America’s “Undermining Pell” report. Nearly half of the public, four-year colleges studied now leave the most financially needy students on […]

Remember the “Flutie Effect”? That’s the claim that Boston College applications increased as a result of Doug Flutie’s last-second Hail Mary pass that won a football game against the defending champs from the University of Miami. Now we may be seeing the opposite—let’s call it the Scandal Side Effect—where a school’s bad publicity can drive […]