Original Research from Veterans Education Success
VES RESEARCH REPORTS
Veterans Education Success performs non-partisan, academic research and analysis of higher education policy issues that matter to military-connected students.
Should Colleges Spend the GI Bill on Veterans’ Education or Late Night TV Ads? And Which Colleges Offer the Best Instructional Bang for the GI Bill Buck?
Should Colleges Spend the GI Bill on Veterans' Education or Late Night TV Ads? And Which Colleges Offer the Best Instructional Bang for the GI Bill Buck? Every year, around 700,000 Post-9/11 GI [...]
Proposed Education Department Regulatory Changes Should Be Reevaluated Based on GI Bill Oversight Lessons
ED’s rulemaking should be revaluated based on the lessons learned from GI Bill oversight and the impact on veterans. In each of the areas ED is proposing changes, veterans have been disproportionally harmed in a [...]
Veteran Student Loan Debt 7 Years After Implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill
In May 2018, we reported on trends in veteran student loan debt from just before the 2009 implementation of the more generous Post-9/11 GI Bill (2007-08) to 3 years after the new benefit became available [...]
Could Education Corporation of America’s Sudden Closure Have Been Avoided?
Earlier this month, another for-profit college chain closed abruptly, leaving more than 20,000 students and 4,000 GI Bill beneficiaries wondering why this happened and how this will affect their future educational endeavors. On December 5, [...]
Career Education Colleges and Universities: Outcomes at Selected Member Schools
After a brief history of CECU, this report provides “key takeaways” from our analysis of both descriptive and outcome data for the 26 CECU-member schools. The report concludes with a discussion of some of the [...]
Postsecondary Non-Completion Among Veterans: Contributing Factors and Implications
This paper uses Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS), a longitudinal survey conducted by the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to examine factors contributing to and the impact of non-completion for “first-time” student [...]
Why Aren’t More Undergraduate Student Veterans Enrolling at Selective Colleges? Veteran Undergraduate vs Graduate Student Demographics
Selective colleges with high graduation rates enroll far fewer veterans pursuing undergraduate certificate, associate’s, or bachelor’s degrees than those seeking post-baccalaureate degrees such as master’s, PhD’s, or certifications. This Issue Brief explores demographic and enrollment [...]
Is Trident University a Good Choice for Military-Connected Students?
Trident, a University that focuses heavily on recruiting military-connected students, has a mixed record. Its outcomes are better than Ashford’s, another for-profit school that is exclusively online, and the proportion of Trident students with federal [...]
Student Outcomes at Colleges Approved by the Accreditor ACICS
Veterans Education Success analyzed the most recent U.S. Department of Education (Department) data to determine student outcomes at the approximately 100 schools still accredited by the Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). ACICS [...]
Veteran Student Loan Debt Before and After the Post-9/11 GI Bill
A major goal of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which modernized veterans’ educational benefits, was to provide veterans with the opportunity of a debt-free, postsecondary education—or, at a minimum, to mitigate their student loan debt. The [...]
Despite a 2016 Statute, the GI Bill Still Pays for Degrees That Do Not Lead to a Job
VES’s 2015 report, The GI Bill Pays for Degrees that Do Not Lead to a Job, identified 8-degree programs offered by 15 different schools, at both brick and mortar campuses and online, that failed to [...]
Large For-Profit Schools Remain Dependent on Recruiting GI Bill Students Despite Overall Enrollment Declines
For several years, the media has reported on the decline in for- profit schools’ student enrollment. Missing in these articles are data on a key subset of students who are specifically targeted by for-profits—GI Bill [...]
For-Profit Schools’ Post-9/11 GI Bill Revenue and Enrollment Declined from 2014 to 2016
In this brief, we report separately on total GI Bill enrollment and enrollment for only the Post-9/11 benefit. Post-9/11 revenue includes tuition payments for qualifying GI Bill students through the Yellow Ribbon program under which [...]
Schools Receiving the Most Post-9/11 GI Bill Tuition and Fee Payments Since 2009
This issue brief focuses on cumulative Post-9/11 payments to schools, not enrollment. Eight of the top 10 recipients of Post-9/11 tuition and fee payments from fiscal years (FY) 2009 through 2017 were for-profit schools. These 8 [...]
Ashford’s Fight to Maintain GI Bill Access Raises Questions about the Enforcement and the Adequacy of Statutory Requirements
Ashford’s potential loss of its eligibility to enroll veterans using the GI Bill and its more than year-long effort to maintain that eligibility raises questions about the enforcement of statutory approval requirements by State Approving [...]
Department of Education Data Shows Increased Targeting of Veterans and Servicemembers, Highlighting Urgency of Closing 90/10 Loophole
For several years, the media has reported on the declining enrollment in the for-profit sector. However, our analysis of federal revenue flowing to the for-profit sector from the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Defense [...]
Repayment Status for First-Time Student Veterans 12 Years After Enrolling
Although NCES’s First Look report on Student Loan Debt, Repayment and Default contains a wealth of information, this Veterans Education Success (VES) Brief highlights a few of the key findings as they relate to veteran [...]
The ITT Collapse: Lessons Learned and Dealing with Future Challenges
The seeds of ITT Tech’s collapse were decades in the making. Deregulation of the for-profit college industry certainly played a rise in enabling ITT’s increasing dependence on federal dollars, but corporate short-term thinking, greed, consumer [...]
Misleading Websites and “Lead Generators”: A Case Study: Victory Media’s “Military Friendly Schools”
VES Report: Misleading Websites and "Lead Generators": A Case Study: Victory Media's "Military Friendly Schools" DOWNLOAD Too often, veterans and servicemembers are misled and deceived by websites and “lead generators” that steer [...]
The GI Bill Pays for Degrees That Do Not Lead To a Job
Unfortunately, some programs approved for GI Bill benefits leave graduates de facto ineligible to obtain a job in their field of study because the school (1) lacks the appropriate accreditation or (2) fails to meet [...]
The Corinthian Sale: Lessons Learned & Dealing With Future Challenges
The February 2015 sale of about half of Corinthian campuses to Zenith Education Group—a brand-new subsidiary of the student loan guaranty agency and debt collector ECMC—provides an opportunity to reflect on lessons learned and prepare [...]
Why For-Profit Institutions are targeting Veterans Education Benefits
The G.I. Bill is America’s chief “thanks” to those who have given the most to their country; it is a ticket to the American Dream for most veterans – a chance to earn a college [...]
VES FACT SHEETS
Veterans Education Success provides summaries of key policy issues.
Advice for Accreditors
Recruiting practices by institutions of higher learning is an area fraught with deceptive and misleading practices, due to a number of competing incentives. While veteran recruiting practices differ from civilian recruiting in some respects – [...]
Enrollment Trends and Student Outcomes at Ashford University
We analyzed publicly available data, conducted interviews, and made a public records request to construct a chronology of Ashford’s fight to maintain its GI Bill eligibility. To assess revenue trends, we used ED’s analyses of [...]
The Incentive Compensation Ban and Its Importance to Veterans
The incentive compensation ban is a provision of Title IV of the Higher Education Act. It prohibits schools from using incentive compensation to pay employees working in recruitment and financial aid. Schools, in other words, [...]
The Borrower Defense Rule and Its Importance to Veterans
The Borrower Defense Rule gives the Education Department the authority to forgive federal student loans for students that prove their debt was incurred because they were defrauded by a school. It has been in place [...]
The Gainful Employment Rule and Its Importance to U.S. Veterans
The Gainful Employment Rule, finalized in 2014 and upheld by federal courts multiple times, implements the requirement in the Higher Education Act that career education programs (whether for-profit, public, or non-profit) must “prepare students for [...]
VES LEGAL REPORTS
Veterans Education Success prepares legal analysis and trends in veteran student complaints.
REPORTS FROM OTHER SOURCES
Research and reports from other sources.
ISSUES
Policy issues of Veterans Education Success
Veterans Education Success works to improve post-secondary quality and student outcomes to ensure military-connected students enjoy a solid education leading to a successful civilian career. You will find research reports and coalition letters related to college quality and student outcomes.
Veterans Education Success seeks to ensure students have adequate protections and rights and also believes bad actor colleges should be held accountable if they’ve trampled on students’ rights. You will find research reports and coalition letters related to student protections and college accountability.
Vterans Education Success works to protect the GI Bill and other federal education benefits.