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How do you Engage an Audience of ONE? Cegment’s Student Engagement Solutions are designed to help institutions convey their unique value and understand affordability with each communication tailored to the individual student’s circumstances. Learn more about how to increase engagement with students at every stage of the financial and enrollment process. Learn more.

"Legislative proposals that work at cross-purposes are nothing new, but watching the latest Higher Education Act reauthorization discussions might cause a serious case of whiplash among even seasoned political spectators,” writes NASFAA President Justin Draeger in The Hill. "On one hand, Congress has ramped up its rhetoric in support of risk-sharing or ‘skin-in-the-game’ ­– to financially incentivize and/or penalize colleges based on whether students graduate and successfully repay their loans. On the other hand, Congress is on the cusp of eliminating the Federal Perkins Loan Program, the only financial risk-sharing student aid program in existence – and a successful one at that."

The Department of Education (ED) is contacting institutions that have not reported data for academic programs that are classified as gainful employment (GE) programs in ED records.

The Department of Education (ED) should re-evaluate its best practices regarding its Federal Direct Loan servicing contracts to better assist borrowers, according to a report from an interagency task force created by the Obama administration.

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.

"The hundreds of thousands of students who attended the institutions of the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges Inc., are still on the hook to the federal government for billions of dollars in student loans. But a decision this week by a bankruptcy court could improve the chances that they won’t have to repay those loans, according to their lawyers," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"A not insignificant share of student loan borrowers say they’d perform some one-time outrageous stunts if it would help them pay down their debt faster. But they’re not willing to put long-term priorities — such as housing or retirement — at risk to get rid of their student loans," according to MarketWatch.

"If there is one thing most Americans have been able to agree on over the years, it is that getting an education, particularly a college education, is a key to human betterment and prosperity," according to The New Yorker.

"An underemployed Florida State University grad is selling her college diploma on eBay for $50,000 to cover $40,000 in college debt," WFLA reports.

"Purdue University has revealed a new plan to help students pay for their college tuition," iSchoolGuide reports.

"Nearly $30 million in federal financial aid awarded to Cheyney University -- a public, historically black institution in Pennsylvania -- is in question after an internal review found at least one error in 85 percent of its records for federal grants between fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2014," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"If you’re a high school student whose parents make a combined $40,000 a year, you may think you don’t have even a remote chance of being able to afford an elite, ultra-high-priced college like Harvard, Princeton or Stanford," Susan Adams writes in an opinion piece for Forbes.

"For years we’ve warned readers about the burgeoning calamity known as student loans, and the latest news is that the debt bomb is hurting the economy as well as the federal fisc. New evidence from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia illustrates how subsidized student loans sap small business creation," The Wall Street Journal writes in an opinion piece.

"Hillary Clinton’s higher education plan is extensive and expensive," Andrew Kelly writes in an opinion piece for Forbes.

"'Education is our primary hope for rehabilitating prisoners. Without education, I am afraid most inmates leave prison only to return to a life of crime.' Those were the words in 1994 of Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-Rhode Island) as he argued against legislation making inmates ineligible for the college grants that bore his name," The Washington Post writes in an editorial.

"Politicians who complain about college costs frequently cite two numbers: one trillion and seven million. Student borrowers owe more than $1 trillion, and seven million borrowers are in default, according to the latest Department of Education data," according to The New York Times' The Upshot.

"Lawmakers from across the country are in a perennial tug-of-war over the best ways to make college affordable and to find solutions to the student debt crisis, and so are several presidential hopefuls," Martha T.S. Laham, business professor at a San Francisco Bay Area college, writes for The Huffington Post.

"Yes, it is true. Student loan defaults are sizable. Recent data show that 7 million individuals are at least one year late in their payments. Before panic sets in and allegations fly about how expensive higher education is, how unsustainable the debt loads are and how likely it is that the student loan bubble will burst, let's think about what the student loan default rates really mean," Karen Gross, former senior policy advisor for the Department of Education, writes for The Huffington Post.

"As many as 6.9 million Americans haven’t made payments on their student loans in nearly a year, which is up 6 percent from last year, according to data released last week by the U.S. Department of Education," ThinkProgress reports. "The number of severe delinquencies is also rising and those rates are significantly higher for for-profit college graduates."

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