Tag: Higher Education

2022, College Affordability, Financial Aid, Politics, Research/Policy

Loan Cancellation or Pension Bailout? A Conundrum for the Pundits

by Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scientist In August 2022, the Biden Administration dropped a student loan cancellation program on the country. At a cost of over $400 million, the program was to cancel $10,000 of student loan debt from anyone with an income of under $125,000/year ($250k if married filing jointly). Another $10,000 for those who received a Pell Grant, which is … Continue reading Loan Cancellation or Pension Bailout? A Conundrum for the Pundits

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2022, College Affordability, Financial Aid, Politics, Research/Policy

Background Data on Student Debt in America

by Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scientist Since I wrote my piece on the Biden Administration’s Student Loan Debt Reduction Plan last week, there has been a lot of information and fallout by colleagues and friends on the issue. Most people I know are on the positive side of the policy, saying that this is helpful for a lot of people who are … Continue reading Background Data on Student Debt in America

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2021, Research/Policy, ROI/College Outcomes, Workforce

A Reconsideration of the Three-Year Degree

by Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scientist In this morning’s InsideHigherEd.com, Emma Whitford writes about “A New Push to Create a 3-Year Degree Option.” In it, she quotes work by Penn Research Bob Zemsky and University of Minnesota researcher Lori Carrell on work they are doing on this issue. As Zemsky is quoted, “We did not ask people to commit to doing a three-year … Continue reading A Reconsideration of the Three-Year Degree

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2018, Research/Policy

The Higher Education Machine

By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute   I receive emails and have emails forwarded to me of the many companies that provide consulting services to higher education. As a disclaimer, EPI provides consulting as well, mostly through my personal keynotes and workshops at institutions. However, the sheer scale of the third-party vendor arena is mindnumbing. Literally thousands of companies are … Continue reading The Higher Education Machine

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2018, Retention, Student Success

In Need of Institutional Grit

By Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scholar, Educational Policy Institute To listen to today’s Swail Letter on your device, click on the podcast icon below. Last week I wrote about the issues of college admissions, selectivity, and grit. I can’t seem to read anything lately without hearing more about grit. As mentioned, grit is a term coined, to a degree, by Angela Duckworth in … Continue reading In Need of Institutional Grit

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