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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.

Federal student loans issued by private lenders before 2010 may be more likely to be delinquent or in default than student loans overall, according to an annual report on student loan complaints released Wednesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Higher education advocates gathered in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) and what issues lawmakers need to consider while working on it. That is, if they are able to work on it at all in today’s highly politicized climate.

Reps. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Richard Hanna (R-NY) on October 9 reintroduced the Earnings Contingent Education Loans (ExCEL) Act. The ExCEL Act would discontinue subsidized Direct Loans and phase out unsubsidized and PLUS loans for student borrowers in favor of a new loan program, Income Dependent Education Assistance (IDEA) loans.

The 2018 Leadership & Legislative Conference & Expo, to be held Feb. 26-28, 2018, in Washington, D.C., includes two days of sessions on various leadership and professional development topics, followed by an optional day on Capitol Hill where participants can advocate on behalf of their students. Attendees will have their choice of four leadership pathways, including the popular Fundamentals of Enrollment Management and Strategic Enrollment Management tracks. View the Agenda at-a-Glance for the tentative schedule and register today to take advantage of early-bird pricing.

NASFAA's Credential Earners Honor Roll was established to celebrate all the individuals who have successfully earned one, or more, NASFAA U professional credentials. Each person had to demonstrate knowledge in the subject area and pass the respective test. Please join us in congratulating Metropolitan Community College, a two-year public institution in Missouri with an FTE of 10,555. To date, 27 individual staff members at Metropolitan Community College have earned a total of 253 credentials. View the Credential Honor Roll, and learn how to receive your own professional credentials.

"It’s been said that home is where the heart is. For students seeking financial assistance for higher education, it’s also where a lot of the scholarships are," Money reports.

"At the first Democratic debate on Tuesday evening, the candidates diagnosed the student loan debt situation as dire and proposed a drastic overhaul," The Street reports.

"College affordability got a few minutes during the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night, with front-runner Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) promoting their competing ideas to lower student debt and eliminate tuition costs at public colleges and universities," The Washington Post reports.

"The political and public policy landscape is increasingly dotted (one might say littered) with those who view the purpose of higher education as about preparing people for the workplace, from governors questioning whether their state universities are producing too many graduates in anthropology or other liberal arts disciplines to Education Department officials whose college data tool focuses heavily on economic outcomes," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"To most college kids, breaks from school mean a respite with all the comforts of home," NBC Philadelphia reports. "But for kids like Matthew Bennett and Alexis Whitt, college breaks -- when most schools close dorms -- mean becoming homeless again. ... For the 2013-14 school year, there were 29,704 homeless college students, according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators."

"Rand Paul worked an audience of mostly students at Loras College [on Tuesday], offering them an argument against 'the notion of a politician who wants to give you free stuff,'" according to TH Media. 

"Mansfield University on Monday announced that is has joined the list of schools in Pennsylvania that will move to charging tuition on a per-credit rate, instead of the flat rate it now charges full-time students," the Star Gazette reports.

"This fall, the Higher Education Act, the law governing federal financial aid for college students, turns 50. It was born in an era when 'mid-century modern' was a contemporary design trend, and color television was still considered a luxury. How times have changed," Marcus Szymanoski writes in an opinion piece for The Washington Times. NASFAA is mentioned in this article.

"For the first time in history, American women are more likely to have bachelor's degrees than American men," according to Vox. "The shift, which happened in 2014 and which the Census Bureau pointed out last week, was a generation in the making. Women have earned the majority of bachelor's degrees granted every year since 1981. As older, less-educated women have died, more educated women have made up a greater share of the population."

"The importance of higher education is hard to overstate. Going to college enables individuals to acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities they can leverage to improve their economic prospects and their quality of life.These benefits extend beyond the individual to communities, as college graduates tend to be more civic-minded, and are more likely to volunteer, read newspapers, and participate in public life. The relatively higher salaries of college graduates can even stimulate the local economy," according to New America's EdCentral blog.

"When I first started researching the student loan issue over a decade ago, it quickly became obvious that there was one congressman the student lending industry loved more than anyone else:  John Boehner," Alan Collinge writes for The Hill's Congress Blog. 

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