Category: Financial Aid

2010, Financial Aid, Research/Policy

Beware of Those Pointing Fingers

by Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute/EPI International

The higher education rags and blogosphere is filled with talk of the career college sector right now, instigated in part by a set of new rules emanating from the US Department of Education recently. This is reminiscent of the 1992 reauthorization, where Congress and ED went after the for-profit “fly-by-night” colleges. In 1992 and the years preceding the reauthorization, Congress called them “fly-by-night.” This year the term is “bad apples.” Semantics. Continue reading Beware of Those Pointing Fingers

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2010, Financial Aid, Politics, Research/Policy

The Fight is on for Student Loans

By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute Yesterday afternoon, The House Education and Labor Committee announced that it will include its legislative reform of the student loan system in the reconciliation bill containing the Health Care plan. If passed, on July 1, 2010 every Title IV institution in the United States will become part of the Federal Direct Student Loan Program (FDSLP). After … Continue reading The Fight is on for Student Loans

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2009, College Affordability, Financial Aid

Drowning in Debt?

By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute Yesterday, the Education Sector released a new analysis of federal financial aid data (National Postsecondary Student Aid System/NPSAS) illustrating trends in loan burden and other statistics over the years. As one might expect, the news, while illuminating, wasn’t particularly “good.” The big conclusions in the analysis are that (1) more students are taking on more debt … Continue reading Drowning in Debt?

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2009, College Access, College Affordability, Financial Aid, Research/Policy

From Hydrocarbons to Higher Learning: The Arabian Peninsula’s Education Boom

By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute Last week, the National Association for Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) unveiled its recommendations for changes to the current federal financial aid system. This comes at the heels of what undeniably will be a sea change in the present system by the Obama Administration. NASFAA has called this offering a National Conversation Initiative, which included town … Continue reading From Hydrocarbons to Higher Learning: The Arabian Peninsula’s Education Boom

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2009, Financial Aid, Politics, Research/Policy

A Place Called Hope?

By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute Tuesday was a special day. Every four years we have a wonderful opportunity to put aside partisan bickering and heal for a moment in an event so uniquely American, but also so important and consequential that the world stops to take notice. This, of course, was not the typical inauguration. It was the inauguration of the … Continue reading A Place Called Hope?

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