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Inceptia's SAP Advisor is a fully automated online solution that provides students, faculty and the financial aid staff with the tools to effectively manage Satisfactory Academic Progress appeals quickly and seamlessly. SAP Advisor increases efficiency and empowers students to actively engage which improves the opportunity for successful outcomes. Visit Inceptia.org to learn more.

Education isn’t known to be a make-or-break issue in elections, even at the state level. And when candidates focus on education early on, the fanfare usually fades away after primary elections. But this time around, higher education and college affordability issues have a chance to persist to the general election, many say.

The Department of Education (ED) posted a draft of the 2016-17 paper FAFSA and other related documents (e.g., Paper Student Aid Report) on August 12. Although the 2016-17 FAFSA on the Web (FOTW) demo site is not yet available and the number of paper filers is small, we encourage you to review the draft paper FAFSA and submit your comments and suggestions on both the draft paper FAFSA and FOTW. Your comments are important because question wording for FOTW is often duplicated from the paper FAFSA.

Featured conference speaker Hill Harper – an actor, author, and philanthropist known for his work on the TV show CSI: New York – focused his remarks at the NASFAA National Conference on a few key words he believes can drive change: passion and energy, reason, and courage. As the founder of the Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, an organization dedicated to empowering underserved youth through mentorship and scholarship programs, Harper is deeply invested in empowering young students and encouraging them in their pursuit of education. Watch the two short videos for excerpts from his impassioned address.

Today marks my final day as NASFAA's 2015 DME Policy Intern. Although my time in the NASFAA office may be up, I'm excited because I still have one last opportunity to share all the incredible experiences I've had this past week with you. 

CORE is a comprehensive set of instructional materials for teaching financial aid fundamentals to individuals with less than two years experience. CORE’s 14 modules cover financial aid administration from A to Z and its flexible design allows you to use it for teaching small or large groups. If you have never tried CORE, purchase and download one module at a time to see if it meets your staff training needs. If you are a Value or Value Plus member, CORE is included in your membership package, so there is no additional cost for you to download it.

Draft versions of the proposed 2016-2017 application forms used by individuals applying for federal student aid, including the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA^®) form and the Student Aid Report (SAR), are available for public comment. Only public comments regarding the FAFSA and related forms should be submitted during this comment period.

As described in the Electronic Announcement dated September 2, 2011, the Office of Postsecondary Education maintains a website containing Q&As pertaining to the Program Integrity final regulations that were published on October 29, 2010. In response to a number of questions from the financial aid community, the Department of Education has revised Q&A DOC-Q2/A2 on the verification portion of this website.

The Department of Education published a notice of proposed priority for this competition in theFederal Register on June 17, 2015 (80 FR 34579). That notice contained background information and our reasons for proposing the particular priority. Except for minor revisions, there are no differences between the proposed priority and this final priority.

Under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the Rehabilitation Services Administration makes grants to States and public or nonprofit agencies and organizations (including institutions of higher education) to support projects that provide training, traineeships, and technical assistance designed to increase the numbers of, and improve the skills of, qualified personnel, especially rehabilitation counselors, who are trained to: Provide vocational, medical, social, and psychological rehabilitation services to individuals with disabilities; assist individuals with communication and related disorders; and provide other services authorized under the Rehabilitation Act.

"The U.S. Department of Education plans to end its longstanding practice of giving colleges certain student information that some institutions may use against students as they apply for admission and financial aid," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"A little-known program provides free tuition to Native American students at Michigan’s public colleges and universities, but lawmakers have failed for years to fully fund the program. As a result, the schools are on the hook for millions of dollars each year," The Detroit News reports.

"College students — especially female college students — are more likely to select difficult majors such as those in science, technology, engineering and math during a recession, according to new research from the University of Colorado," the Daily Camera reports.

"There are nearly 30,000 international students who are studying at Ohio’s colleges and universities, and state leaders have a plan that they say will open the door for even more," StateImpact Ohio reports.

"College affordability — or lack thereof — is on many people’s minds these days. The pervasive concern over rising costs and mounting student debt now has percolated into the 2016 presidential campaign in a big way," according to The Kansas City Star. "This worked to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s advantage when she announced her own comprehensive prescription on Monday: She had many proposals to steal from, and she did so with liberal abandon."

"In a recent column, state Sen. Duey Stroebel (R-Cedarburg) lamented Wisconsin college students leaving the state upon their graduation and the detrimental impact this can have on our economy, hampering entrepreneurism and stagnating income growth," according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "We agree that there is a crisis, but Stroebel ignores the elephant in the room with his proposed solution of limited tuition scholarships and nonrefundable tax credits for a handful of high school graduates each year. Meanwhile, nearly 1 million Wisconsinites who worked hard to get their education and took on the personal responsibility to pay for it are held back by the student loan debt crisis."

"On July 30, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) joined the many organizations and policymakers calling for reforming the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). NASFAA’s four point proposal calls for a few familiar changes, but innovates in other ways. In this post, we’ll break down the details of how NASFAA proposes collecting and using data for the FAFSA and compare it to the current form and other proposals circulating," according to New America's EdCentral blog.

"College is expensive. Financial aid is supposed to help. But what if it doesn't? What if the fact that students can get help from the federal government to pay for college just leads colleges to charge more?" Libby Nelson writes for Vox.

"College affordability is fast becoming a major issue in the 2016 election," according to the Committee on Economic Development. "Tuition at 2- and 4-year institutions has been outpacing inflation for decades – rising over 3 times faster than the Consumer Price Index since the 1980s.  Meanwhile young people (and their parents) repeatedly hear – for the most part correctly – that at least some postsecondary education is necessary to obtain a well-paying job."

"Hillary Clinton has unveiled a plan to improve college access, and few can doubt the urgency of the task. (If you are one of the few, read this by Professor Sean Reardon)," according to the Brookings Institution. "For example, more than 80 percent of new community college students say they want at least a bachelor’s degree but after six years only 15 percent of them have managed to obtain one. Why?"

"About this time two years ago, President Obama went on his college affordability bus tour and unveiled his plan to take on the rising costs of higher education in front of thousands of students at SUNY Buffalo," according to New America's EdCentral. "Promoting innovation and competition was a key part of his plan and President Obama held up competency-based education (CBE) up as one of the 'innovative new ways to prepare our students for a 21st century economy and maintain a high level of quality without breaking the bank.'"

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