Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States: 2017 Trend Report

The Pell Institute and PennAHEAD recently released the annual Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States report for 2017. According to the report, equity gaps remain in American higher education. The cost of college has continued to increase, and yet, Pell Grants do not cover the same proportion of the average cost of college as they once have.

SHEEO Releases Annual State Higher Education Finance Report

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) recently released its annual State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) Fiscal Year report for 2016. According to the report, state and local governments provided nearly $90 billion in FY 2016 to support higher education, marking the first decline in overall state and local support in four years.

Who Gets Pell Grants and Why It Matters

Four in 10 students receive Pell Grants to help fund their college education. A new infographic recently released by the Center for American Progress explores who receives Pell Grants and the role these grants play in higher education for low-income students.

Institutions, Students and Degree Production: Increases Over the Past Decade

ACE’s Center for Policy Research and Strategy has released an updated version its Basic Facts About U.S. Higher Education Today infographic as part of the Higher Education Spotlight series. This analysis examines the diversity of the higher education landscape, student outcomes, and the widespread payoffs of a college education.

Urban Institute’s New Website Explores What College Affordability Actually Means

What does college affordability mean? Is affordability the same for all students? A new website from the Urban Institute, with support from the Lumina Foundation, serves as a hub of data and information to answer these questions.

Most Students Hold Less Than $30,000 in Debt

ACE’s Center for Policy Research and Strategy has released an updated version its Paying for College infographic as part of the Higher Education Spotlight series. This analysis unpacks information on the cost of college and how students pay for their education. Among the findings: Most undergraduate students have less than $30,000 in cumulative debt.

ACE’s Lorelle Espinosa Joins National Academies Committee to Study STEM Programs at MSIs

Lorelle Espinosa, assistant vice president for ACE’s Center for Policy Research and Strategy, has been tapped to serve on a new committee of higher education diversity scholars, STEM faculty, and STEM workforce professionals for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

Wisconsin HOPE Lab Announces New Survey on Food and Housing Insecurity

The Wisconsin HOPE Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has announced a call for participants for its recent study examining food and housing insecurity among students enrolled in postsecondary education.

Increasing Admission of Low-Income Students in Engineering

A policy brief from University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education discusses results from a randomized experiment conducted to determine whether more contextualized information on low-income students’ background and high school would affect the percentage of low-income engineering students admitted.

New Gates Foundation Podcast: Innovation, Equity, and Excellence

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success team recently released the first episode in its new podcast, To a Degree. Moderated by Casey Green from The Campus Computing Project, the podcast will feature higher education professionals, institutions and organizations discussing various issues related to postsecondary innovation, policy, practice and success.

Back on Choppy Waters: The 2016 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments

A recent blog by Lindsay Wayt, assistant director for research and policy analysis at the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), covers the results of the 2016 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. According to the study’s findings, the FY 2016 endowment investment performance at colleges and universities was “the lowest since recession-level returns in 2009”—a trend that could potentially continue.

IHEP Report Finds College Remains Unaffordable for Many Americans

College affordability is at the forefront of higher education conversations. However, there is not a clear understanding of what is affordable. A recent report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), with support from the Lumina Foundation, seeks to answer just that.