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Great Lakes. It’s about time. Time for a change… to save you time. From financial literacy tools with loan counseling and selection through streamlined loan application, certification, and disbursement, our one-stop shop makes private loan processing fast, easy, and effective for you and your students. Contact your representative or visit schools.mygreatlakes.org

Most federal financial aid goes directly to the pockets of needy students, but some programs that first filter the money to institutions actually favor established and costly private colleges and universities due to outdated funding formulas, according to a new research paper.

"[I] ask each of you to think about your students as you perform your daily work and that you consider the impact that your decisions have on your students," new National Chair Dan Mann told NASFAA members after receiving the gavel at the 2015 National Conference in New Orleans. "I also ask each of you to keep opening the doors to an education for your students," concluded Mann, who is director of Student Financial Aid at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Watch the video now to hear his speech in its entirety.

Though ED has yet to issue final guidance, the Perkins Loan Program is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2015 without congressional action. Of the approximately 300 responses to our informal survey on Perkins, 47 percent selected "We will continue to service outstanding loans once the program ends," 34 percent selected "We are not awarding any Perkins loans to new borrowers for the 2015-2016 academic year," 34 percent selected "Other" and six percent selected "We have already begun the process of closing out our Perkins Loan Fund (ceasing our participation in the program) under existing regulation by assigning outstanding loans to the Department of Education."

In the Federal Requirements for State Authorization session at the 2015 NASFAA Conference, U.S. Department of Education (ED) officials reminded schools that it will no longer delay enforcement of the state authorization requirements. Effective July 1, 2015, schools must demonstrate compliance with the state authorization requirements under 34 CFR 600.9(a) and (b) of the Institutional Eligibility regulations.

According to recent conversations with the Department of Education (ED), numerous schools have already reported necessary data regarding their Gainful Employment (GE) programs. However, some data remains missing, incomplete or erroneous.

We're scheduling Standards of Excellence (SOE) and Consumer Information Assessment reviews for fall 2018. Both services offer an objective, confidential, peer review program that assesses your institution's administration of federal financial aid. Customized reviews will highlight strengths, identify compliance exceptions, and recommend improvements. Complete our simple information request form to learn more about NASFAA's peer review services.

The purpose of this priority is to fund a cooperative agreement for a training and technical assistance center that will assist State vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies to improve performance management by building their capacity to carry out high-quality program evaluations and quality assurance practices that promote continuous program improvement.

This program is designed to (a) develop new types of training programs for rehabilitation personnel and to demonstrate the effectiveness of these new types of training programs for rehabilitation personnel in providing rehabilitation services to individuals with disabilities; and (b) develop new and improved methods of training rehabilitation personnel, so that there may be a more effective delivery of rehabilitation services by State and other rehabilitation agencies.

"Some colleges and universities that play big-time intercollegiate sports are sharply increasing the federally defined cost of attendance for students at their institutions this year -- letting them provide several thousand more dollars in stipends for scholarship athletes, but resulting in little if any additional funds for other students," Inside Higher Ed reports. "Karen McCarthy, a policy analyst for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said that it’s not uncommon for cost of attendance to fluctuate from year to year, but it is unusual to see such sudden and sizable increases in expense categories like travel."

"After more than two years of anxiety over how the Obama administration planned to judge their institutions, many college and university leaders exhaled deeply earlier this summer when federal officials dropped their plan to create a college ratings system," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"Hillary Clinton’s higher education plan announced Monday highlights the growing consensus among Democrats on how to tackle rising tuition: send federal money to states that agree, in return, to lower or eliminate tuition at their public colleges -- and enact other reforms," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"Everyone knows student debt is growing. College costs are growing. Student debt delinquencies are rising. And now Hillary Clinton has her own plan for how to stem that tide of financial problems for college graduates," NPR reports.

"...Today, Citizens has built a portfolio of more than $2 billion. If you are looking to finance your education, Citizens is now a leading issuer of loans in the country. And if you are looking to refinance, Citizens is competing with Silicon Valley start-ups SoFi and Earnest for market dominance," Forbes reports.

"Wisconsin legislators have begun quietly and unofficially discussing how the state's 42 public universities and colleges—the 26 UW System campuses and the 16 technical colleges—might be realigned to deal with dwindling state aid," The Janesville Gazette reports.

"Looking for a secure job in Nevada once you graduate? Then your best bet is to declare an education major, according to a report published Friday through the state's new super-data system that links information from public schools, state colleges and universities and employers," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

"University leaders often speak of the need to extend higher education opportunities to low-income students, even as the national trend is for colleges and universities to go after a more affluent enrollment," according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

"As state funding for the University of California system has declined, campuses have plugged budget shortfalls by enrolling out-of-state and foreign students who pay more in tuition," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

"... Realizing graduates were struggling to repay their heavy debt burdens, the government announced a few plans that would allow student debt to be forgiven over time," according to Business Insider. "The loan-forgiveness repayment plans are helpful, but it's not that simple."

"A report from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has sparked new discussion about simplifying the process of applying for federal student aid — a move that could eliminate redundancies in college financial-aid offices and encourage as many as 2 million more students per year to attend college," Dennis Pierce writes for the American Association of Community Colleges' 21st Century Center.

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