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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.

With the 2016 Presidential race heating up, candidates continue to discuss important issues facing the nation. More important than rhetoric, however, is how the candidates have proposed to solve these problems. So far, five candidates have presented at least some detail for how their respective administrations would tackle higher education.

To the surprise of many, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan budget agreement on Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 266 to 167, with all Democrats supporting the bill and a clear majority of Republicans voting in opposition. The agreement, negotiated by Republican and Democratic congressional leaders and President Obama, would lock in spending levels for the next two years and push back debate on the debt ceiling until March 2017.

The Policy Brief, an occasional video series, gives members a quick glimpse into what NASFAA’s policy team is working on. In this installment, NASFAA Federal Relations Associate Stephen discusses how NASFAA members helped us get momentum behind prior-prior year (PPY) income information to win bipartisan support and eventual consideration by President Barack Obama.

A federal court on Tuesday ruled against Corinthian Colleges in a lawsuit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed last year over predatory lending practices.

You are cordially invited to participate in NASFAA’s 50th Anniversary Online Trivia Contest, taking you through our history one decade at a time. Thanks to a diligent member, we've uncovered and corrected an incorrect answer - take the quiz now about NASFAA’s history between 1997 and 2006. Do you know where NASFAA's 40th anniversary celebration was held? When did NASFAA begin overseeing the College Goal Sunday program? Find the answers by navigating the NASFAA website and reading Today’s News. To participate, go to the trivia homepage and dive in – and keep an eye on Today’s News to see if you’ve won one of our great prizes.

A revised set of questions and answers about the Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program has been posted to the “Hot Topics” area of the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site as well as on the Campus-Based Processing Information Page.

In preparation for the 2016-2017 Renewal Reminder distribution, the Department is reminding all schools to update 2015-2016 Student Aid Report (SAR) and Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) transactions for their students with a current e-mail address by January 12, 2016.

The Department's federal offices as well as some of its Title IV processors and contact centers will be closed on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 to observe the Veterans Day federal holiday.

The Department seeks OMB approval of all application components as a single “collection of information”.

"One of higher education’s elder statesmen could see a shake-up coming. An odd bit of administrative protocol, the credit hour, had outlived its usefulness, he thought. It forced students to bide their time for weeks, months, semesters — even if they had already mastered the material," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"The days when the typical college student went from high school to college and then college to work are a distant memory," Inside Higher Ed reports. "But a new report released [Wednesday] by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce paints a surprising picture of just how many of today's students are already in the workforce -- and argues that colleges and the business community must better integrate students' academic and work experiences."

"New Jersey students who may not have considered applying for college because of financial constraints could have their tuition costs completely waived or reduced by half through a program being offered by Rutgers University-Camden," NJ 101.5 reports.

"Howard County schools officials announced a new effort this week to improve workforce diversity, forging a partnership with McDaniel College that will provide full scholarships to low-income students who commit to three years of employment in the Maryland school system after graduation," The Washington Post reports.

"Failing to keep more bright students within New Jersey for college can have negative implications for future economic growth," Seton Hall University Professor Robert Kelchen writes for The Record.

"Governor Cuomo’s leaked plan to make community colleges in New York tuition-free, potentially aligning with President Obama’s America’s College Promise initiative, is an exciting step towards reinvesting in higher education after years of flat-lined funding and tuition hikes. This thinking, if it indeed means increasing our state’s investments in higher education, reflects an awakening around the role that community colleges play in the fabric of society and the future of our economy," according to the Gotham Gazette.

"In the spirit of Halloween, are student loans a trick or a treat for you or your student?" Scott Spann writes for Forbes. "... That depends upon three important factors: how much you are borrowing or have already borrowed, what your expected income is and whether the loans are necessary to accomplish your goals."

"The major argument for free public college and university education is the same as for free public education in general: like the free public elementary and high schools already existing in the United States, free public higher education provides educational opportunity for all," Lawrence Wittner, a professor of history emeritus at SUNY-Albany, writes in an opinion piece for CounterPunch.

"Federal student loan income-driven repayment programs can be an effective tool for borrowers, especially new college graduates starting out their careers. As a servicer, we’ve assisted 23 percent of our borrowers — 41 percent of balances — to enroll in these programs by the end of their first year of repayment," Jack Remondi, president and chief executive of Navient, writes in a letter to the editor for The New York Times.

"College tuition is high, but degrees are still worth it. Debt is growing, but the largest debts are held by people with the highest income. So what’s the problem? The really troubling trend is the growing risk associated with investing in higher education," Beth Akers writes for the Brookings Institution.

"As rising student debt levels have grabbed the attention of policymakers, one idea in particular has garnered a ton of national attention: the notion that the federal government should enable existing federal loan borrowers to 'refinance' those loans at current interest rates," Kevin James and Andrew Kelly write for the American Enterprise Institute.

​"While the race for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations remains an early and crowded one, the Student Loan Ranger thought it might be a good time to start getting an idea of where some of the candidates stand on student debt," Betsy Mayotte writes for U.S. News & World Report's Student Loan Ranger blog.

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