"Dozens of institutions will be forced to pay money into their depleted federal Perkins Loan funds because they expect a shortfall in award money this year, according to a national survey of 273 colleges," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "The findings, to be released this morning, also depict a bleak picture for the amount of money institutions will have available to lend through Perkins Loans, as 80 percent of respondents said they expected to have about one-third less money for loans. A downturn in the federal government's contributions has helped create the shortfalls institutions are seeing, the report says. That means fewer students at some institutions will be awarded Perkins Loans, and institutions may have to turn more to institutional loans."