"The vast majority of college students at 11 institutions who received emergency financial aid through the federal Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund said the money helped to reduce their stress and let them better focus on their studies, according to a survey published today," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

..."The study — a collaboration of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators; NASPA, the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education; and the consulting firm HCM Strategists — explored how students and institutions used federal emergency-stimulus funding during the pandemic. It also offers recommendations on improving the effectiveness of emergency-aid programs.

The survey provides a unique window into how institutions and students used the federal emergency aid because most colleges surveyed did not do their own evaluations; they were not required to.

Jill Desjean, a senior policy analyst with NASFAA, said that when asked why they did not track how students used the emergency financial aid, college administrators said that they lacked the resources to do so, prioritized getting help to students as quickly as possible, and did not want to further burden students with more questions during a stressful time. According to Desjean, survey respondents said that 'to develop some kind of robust evaluation would have been a heavy lift during the chaos of those early months of the pandemic.'"

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 10/5/2022