The Untold Story of Warren Seavey and His Students
At the close of World War II, a renegade professor admitted a wave of returning veterans to Harvard Law, even though some had questionable credentials and others didn’t even apply. They’d be called “the best class there ever was.
The Hidden Loophole: How Predatory Offshore Medical Schools are Partnering with U.S. Universities to Access Federal Student Aid Funds
For-profit, offshore Caribbean medical schools that are not eligible to participate in Federal Student Aid’s Direct Loan Program are taking advantage of a regulatory loophole to obtain Title IV, Higher Education Act (HEA) funds. In this report, we discuss how these predatory, offshore medical schools, partnering with American schools, are taking advantage of students to syphon Title IV funds, and call on the U.S. Department of Education to implement policies to address the regulatory loophole and protect students and preserve the integrity of the Title IV program.
Can Information and Advising Affect Postsecondary Participation and Attainment for Non-Traditional Students?
Lack of information and advising prior to college matriculation may contribute to poor postsecondary outcomes among non-traditional students. We conducted a large-scale, multi-arm field experiment with the U.S. Army to investigate whether a package of research-based personalized information and access to advising affects postsecondary choices and attainment among a large non-traditional adult population. We find no impact of the intervention on whether veterans enroll in college, on the quality of their college enrollment, or on their persistence in college. Our results suggest that influencing non-traditional populations’ educational decisions and outcomes will require substantially more intensive programs.
U.S. Department of Education Renews Contracts with Troubled For-Profit Colleges
A new Student Defense analysis reveals that the U.S. Department of Education - through both decisions and inaction - continues to allow predatory institutions to scam students and taxpayers with impunity and without rebuke. This analysis comes nearly two years after Student Defense called on the Biden Administration to use civil law enforcement authorities to better protect student loan borrowers.
American University Practicum Report: Student Veterans and Deceptive Schools
This report was completed as part of a student practicum in collaboration with the American University (AU) Master's of Public Policy program. We are grateful to AU and their bright students for studying these important [...]
American Institutes for Research: Informing Improved Recognition of Military Learning
This report examines student veterans’ experiences with and perceptions of having their military learning recognized by a postsecondary institution. Previous research suggests recognition of military training and occupation helps to support student veterans as they [...]
Brown University: Can Information and Advising Affect Postsecondary Participation and Attainment for Non-Traditional Students? Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment with the U.S. Army
Non-traditional students disproportionately enroll in institutions with weaker graduation and earnings outcomes. One hypothesis is that these students would have made different choices had they been provided with better information or supports during the decision-making [...]
Student Defense: Legal Memorandum: The Department of Education’s Obligation to Reform Its Financial Responsibility Oversight
In recent years, tens of thousands of students have been harmed by the closures of predatory colleges where—despite years of unheeded warnings—the closures were described as “abrupt” or “precipitous” or caused by sudden financial or [...]
The Century Foundation: Employer-Provided Tuition Benefit Programs: Is Guild As Good As It Gets?
To attract and retain workers in today’s tight labor market, the largest employers in the United States have turned to promoting college tuition and education benefits. In 2021, Amazon announced a plan to revamp its [...]
Bipartisan Policy Center: Which Colleges Are Worth the Cost?
While the federal government distributes nearly $150 billion in higher education student aid annually, regulations that hypothetically prevent low-quality institutions from benefiting from this aid rarely function as intended. Researchers have made progress in measuring [...]
Education Counsel: Lessons from a Risk-Based Oversight Model Designed to Protect Students and Taxpayers
Over the past 20 years, many higher education institutions have closed without warning, leaving student veterans without degrees and with few options to complete their degrees and get better jobs. Partially in response to these [...]
Brookings Institute: Where have all the GI Bill dollars gone? Veteran usage and expenditure of the Post-9/11 GI Bill
The Post 9/11 GI Bill (PGIB) was one of the largest expansions of financial aid for veterans and their families. However, how veterans use these benefits and the institutions they attend are not well documented. [...]
The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS): Accountability That Works: Restoring Gainful Employment and Strengthening Higher Education Accountability Measures
Across higher education sectors, too many students experience inconsistent programmatic quality and varying graduation rates, all while taking on loan debt that burdens them for years to come. These challenges grow as more institutions increase [...]
Center for Responsible Lending Report: The State of For-Profit Colleges
Data in this research provides a snapshot of the for-profit sector at a critical moment, as federal student loan payments have been paused during the pandemic. Because of the payment pause, sector-by-sector comparisons related to [...]
The Century Foundation Report: Invasion Of The College Snatchers
"New data obtained by TCF reveal some colleges rely on OPMs to bring in up to one-half or more of their total enrollment." Read the report here.
The Century Foundation: Predatory Colleges Think They Are Too Flawed to Fail. Biden’s Department of Education Should Prove Them Wrong.
For too long, however, predatory for-profit schools have enrolled students and harvested their federal aid without holding up the school’s end of the bargain, violating the terms of their PPAs; it’s time for ED to [...]
How does virtual learning impact students in higher education?
In 2020, the pandemic pushed millions of college students around the world into virtual learning. As the new academic year begins, many colleges in the U.S. are poised to bring students back to campus, but a large amount of uncertainty remains. Some institutions will undoubtedly continue to offer online or hybrid classes, even as in-person instruction resumes. At the same time, low vaccination rates, new coronavirus variants, and travel restrictions for international students may mean a return to fully online instruction for some U.S. students and many more around the world.
Issue Brief from Student Borrower Protection Center: “Withholding Dreams”
Link to the Student Borrower Protection Center Issue Brief here.
Report: Protecting Military Borrowers: How the Department of Education Can Restore the Promise of Public Service Loan Forgiveness for American Servicemembers
Introduction Policymakers have long acknowledged that financial readiness is intrinsic to military readiness and that the unique financial stress imposed by military life can impede America’s national security. In fact, Congress has repeatedly taken steps [...]
Report: Protection and the Unseen: How the U.S. Department of Education’s Undeveloped Authorities Can Protect Students and Promote Equity in Higher Education
Abstract Higher Education is changing and demands enhanced oversight by the U.S. Department of Education. This paper identifies underused authorities in the Higher Education Act of 1965 that can promote equity and protect students and [...]
Brookings Institution: Where Have All the GI Bill Dollars Gone?: Veteran Usage and Expenditure of the Post 9/11 GI Bill
Kofoed, Michael S., U.S. Military Academy and Brookings Institution, “Where have all the GI Bill dollars gone? Veteran usage and expenditure of the Post-9/11 GI Bill,” (Oct. 2020), This report is available at Brookings: https://www.brookings.edu/research/where-have-all-the-gi-bill-dollars-gone/ [...]
TICAS: The Evolution of the For-Profit College Industry
The Evolution of the For-Profit College Industry: New Challenges for Oversight focuses on important changes to the sector, which include the growth of online education, the efforts of for-profit colleges to convert to non-profit status, [...]
Report from New America: “The Bermuda Triad: Where Accountability Goes to Die”
New America released a report detailing the role of the Triad (federal government, states, accreditors) in holding institutions of higher education accountable and provided recommendations for how to strengthen the Triad. Link here.
Georgetown Center on Education & the Workforce: A First Try at ROI: Ranking 4,500 Colleges
Using data from the expanded College Scorecard to rank 4,500 colleges and universities by return on investment, A First Try at ROI: Ranking 4,500 Colleges finds that bachelor's degrees from private colleges, on average, have higher [...]
What Graduation Rates Have Missed for Community College Students
A report from the Center for American Progress.
The Century Foundation: How to Stop Sudden College Closures
The U.S. Department of Education’s current system of financial oversight of colleges does not forecast the future condition of an institution but rather only examines the past and it implements well-intentioned but ineffective interventions that [...]
Top 10 Ways the New Borrower Defense Rule is Bad for Borrowers
The Institute for College Access & Success, National Consumer Law Center, and The Century Foundation released the following fact sheet describing the ways the new Borrower Defense rule is worse for borrowers than the 2016 [...]
New America Foundation: The Cautionary Tale of Correspondence Schools
In July, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the formation of a negotiated rulemaking committee to develop regulations to expand access for students to “high-quality, innovative programs” by revising or rescinding a sweeping range [...]
The Forgotten Faces of Student Loan Default
The Center for American Progress analyzed Education Department surveys which followed students from 2003 when they enrolled in postsecondary education through 2015. The report highlights five groups of students with disproportionate student loan debt burdens [...]
Center for American Progress: The 85 Colleges That Only ACICS Would Accredit
June 12 was supposed to be the end of the road for colleges that relied on the Accrediting Council for Independent Schools and Colleges (ACICS) for access to federal financial aid, marking 18 months since [...]
Center for Responsible Lending: A Bitter Pill: Gainful Employment and Credentialism in Healthcare Support Fields: Findings from the Gainful Employment Data, Website Disclosures, and a Focus Group of For-Profit College Borrowers
The marketing of for-profit colleges is ubiquitous, yet student outcomes are consistently poor. These outcomes include high dropout rates, low and unstable earnings of graduates, and heavy debt burdens that students are unable to repay, [...]
The Century Foundation: Background on Bogus Nonprofit Conversions (powerpoint slides), provided to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity
A student enrolling at a for-profit college is two hundred times more likely to end up filing a fraud complaint seeking a refund on their federal loans than a student enrolling at a nonprofit.
Third Way: The Pell Divide: How Four-Year Institutions are Failing to Graduate Low- and Moderate-Income Students
Since 1972, the Pell Grant has served as the primary tool for increasing access to higher education for low- and moderate-income students. That’s why the federal government continues to spend nearly $30 billion dollars on this [...]
National College Access Network: Defining College Affordability: Shutting Low-Income Students Out of Public Four-Year Higher Education
College affordability is a perennial topic around kitchen tables, in the media, and for stakeholders with interest in seeing more students access and complete a postsecondary education. Low- and middle-income students and families wring their [...]
Swords to Plowshares: The Path Forward: What Universities Need to Know to Help Student Veterans Succeed
During the 2017-2018 academic year, Swords to Plowshares’ Institute for Veteran Policy conducted qualitative research with 75 veterans and nine campus staff from Bay Area colleges to assess formal and informal supportive practices on campuses [...]
Urban Institute, Student Loan Debt in America: An Interactive Map
Credit can be a lifeline during emergencies and a bridge to education and homeownership. But debt, which can stem from credit or unpaid bills, often burdens families and communities and exacerbates wealth inequality. This map [...]
Brookings Institution: Gainfully employed? New Evidence on the Earnings, Employment, and Debt of For-Profit Certificate Students
As the U.S. Department of Education proposes weakening the Gainful Employment (GE) rules regulating for-profit and vocational education programs, accurate estimates of the earnings outcomes and debt incurred by students in these programs are essential [...]
Center for American Progress: A Second Status Update on ACICS Colleges
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it will hold a May meeting to help decide whether the problematic accrediting agency Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) should again be allowed [...]
Children’s Advocacy Institute: Failing U: Do state laws protect our veterans and other students from for-profit postsecondary predators?
The Children’s Advocacy Institute (CAI), part of the University of San Diego School of Law, identified several elements that are essential to addressing the problems outlined in this report and protecting students by effectively regulating [...]
Student Loan Borrower Assistance: ED Turns 325,000 Student Loan Borrowers Over to Debt Collectors It Fired for Breaking the Law
With nearly a quarter of federal student loan borrowers in default, borrowers need a system that will help them to successfully repay their loans. Unfortunately, the Department of Education continues to reward contractors that lie [...]
Center for American Progress: Who Are Student Loan Defaulters?
Every year, 1 million student borrowers default on nearly $20 billion in federal loans. New data present the best picture ever accessible of who these borrowers are, the path they took into default, and whether or [...]
The Century Foundation: Gainful Employment and for-profit college regulatory structure
Some people refer to public, nonprofit, and for-profit as a college’s “tax status.” But that is misleading. The monikers refer to the legal requirements for how the institutions operate and who they are accountable to, [...]
The Century Foundation: College Complaints Unmasked: 99 Percent of Student Fraud Claims Concern For-Profit Colleges
The Century Foundation (TCF) has obtained new data from the U.S. Department of Education about nearly 100,000 “borrower defense claims”—applications for loan relief from students who maintain that they have been defrauded or misled by [...]
Federal Trade Commission Nominations
Student Veterans of America Letter to U.S. Senate Commerce Committee re: Federal Trade Commission Nominations https://vetsedsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/SVA-letter-FTC-nomination.pdf
National Guard Association Implementing New Changes
National Guard Association of the United States Resolutions to close the 90/10 loophole, require schools to disclose credit transfer and other policies, and reinstate GI Bill for veterans at closed schools https://vetsedsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/NGAUS-Resolutions-2017.pdf
The American Legion Resolution Against Force Arbitration
The American Legion Resolution in Favor of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Rule Against Forced Arbitration
American Legion Resolution to protect gainful employment and borrower defense
The American Legion resolution to protect gainful employment and borrower defense rules.
The American Legion Resolution to Close the 90/10 Loophole
https://vetsedsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/American-Legion-Resolution-90-10.pdf
The Military Coalition’s Letter on Protecting the CFPB
The Military Coalition’s letter to Congress requesting that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau be protected.
Veterans in Class Actions Lawsuits
The Military Coalition’s letter to Congressional leadership requesting veteran access to class action lawsuits against predatory lenders.
The Century Foundation: When George H. W. Bush “Cracked Down” on Abuses at For-Profit Colleges
When George H. W. Bush became president on January 20, 1989, he inherited from the Reagan administration some unfinished business in higher education. Bill Bennett, President Reagan’s secretary of education, had launched an effort to [...]
The Century Foundation: The Reagan Administration’s Campaign to Rein in Predatory For-Profit Colleges
No secretary of education has been more critical of traditional higher education than William Bennett, President Ronald Reagan’s second and best-known education secretary. Barely five days after taking office in February 1985, Bennett accused the [...]
The Century Foundation: Truman, Eisenhower, and the First GI Bill Scandal
The 1944 GI Bill is rightly remembered as one of the most effective social policy programs in U.S. history. Thanks to the GI Bill, millions of soldiers returning from World War II had the opportunity [...]
Brookings Institution: How Much Do For-Profit Colleges Rely on Federal Funds?
The outgoing Obama administration placed for-profit colleges under a great deal of scrutiny. This includes gainful employment regulations that will require graduates of vocationally-oriented programs to meet debt-to-earnings requirements and borrower defense to repayment rules [...]
CNA for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, Personnel and Readiness: Population Representation in the Military Services: Annual Reports
CNA Resource Analysis produces Population Representation in the Military Services (also known as “Pop Rep”) for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. This report, mandated by the Senate Committee [...]
Benjamin Castleman, Francis Murphy, and William Skimmyhorn, Marching Across Generations? An Analysis of the Benefits Transfer Provision of the Post-9/11 GI Bill
This study explored the use of standardized tests within nursing programs. Standardized tests have been used within nursing programs for several decades (Shultz, 2010), but recently their use has increased. This rise in utilization may be [...]
Center for American Progress: ACICS Must Go
Getting students to apply to and enroll in college can require a lot of creativity at an institution without any brand recognition. Even so, FastTrain College’s recruiting tactics took the idea of an exotic approach [...]
Irene Coons, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Use of Standardized Tests Within Nursing Education Programs
This study explored the use of standardized tests within nursing programs. Standardized tests have been used within nursing programs for several decades (Shultz, 2010), but recently their use has increased. This rise in utilization may be [...]
David Deming, Claudia Goldin & Lawrence Katz, The For-Profit Post-Secondary School Sector: Nimble Critters or Agile Predators? American Economic Association Journal of Economic Perspectives
Private for-profit institutions have become an increasingly visible part of the U.S. higher education sector. Within that sector, they are today the most diverse institutions by program and size, have been the fastest growing, have [...]
Mettler, “‘The Only Good Thing Was the GI Bill’: Effects of the Education and Training Provisions on African American Veterans’ Political Participation”
Dr. Suzanne Mettler, a senior professor of government at Cornell University, and a well-regarded expert on the WWII GI Bill (author of Soldiers to Citizens: The GI Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation) [...]
