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In a newly-released analysis, the Department of Education (ED) gave a detailed breakdown of the more than 100,000 borrower defense claims it has received since 2015, presenting information on claims per state, claim status, and changes over time. Among other things, ED found that since 2015 it has received more than 4,000 claims per month. Prior to 2015, ED had received fewer than 10 claims.

The Department of Education (ED) will be implementing changes to correct two glitches with IRS flags in late January, it announced in an Electronic Announcement released Tuesday. However, they will not be reprocessing affected 2018-19 FAFSA applications that were processed before the corrections are implemented, so workarounds will be necessary.

Every year, 500,000 students at the top of their high school classes fail to complete a college degree. Almost all of these students, which comprise one-third of the top-performing students nationwide, have dropped out of college and leave with loan debt and no credential, according to new research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW).

As the conversation around the burden of student debt has continued to intensify, the refinancing industry has also grown. While refinancing federal student loans with a private lender may be a helpful option for some borrowers, it's increasingly difficult to get approved, according to a new report from LendEDU.

If you are the primary contact at your institution, you should have received an invitation by email to vote online in the NASFAA elections. Once you select your candidates online, you will receive an email from NASFAA confirming your selections. Your vote will not be counted until you confirm via the email. Read each candidate’s resume and statement of candidacy. The elections will close today at 3:00 p.m. ET; those elected will take office in July 2018. Thanks to everyone who nominated candidates or agreed to run for NASFAA office. 

NASFAA seeks to compile a repository of member-submitted position descriptions for financial aid office positions. Please feel free to submit position descriptions for use as templates to assist your colleagues in developing positions descriptions for their own office. You may submit this form more than once if you have multiple descriptions to share. We will remove any identifying information about your institution before publishing the position descriptions. Submissions will be made available in the Member-Generated Content Library soon.

This Electronic Announcement provides information about the application process for schools interested in participating in the Work Colleges Program under the Federal Work-Study Program for the 2018–19 Award Year. To participate in this program the school must comply with all provisions of Section 448 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), and the applicable program regulations included in Subpart C of 34 CFR Part 675.

"The Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos is engaged in an effort to undo Obama-era regulations governing loan forgiveness among students who have been defrauded by their universities," Bustle reports. "The Department of Education 'came to the table during negotiations with a much stricter proposal in terms what the borrowers have to do,' says Karen McCarthy, the director of policy analysis for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators."

"The 115th Congress is about halfway over, and when it comes to education, GOP leaders in Congress accomplished one top priority thus far: ditching accountability rules for the Every Student Succeeds Act from the Obama administration. But what else have lawmakers gotten done? ...Last month, the House education committee passed the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform, or PROSPER, Act, which would reauthorize the Higher Education Act," Education Week reports. 

"President Trump and congressional Democrats appear no closer to a deal on protecting 'Dreamers' from deportation, but GOP lawmakers are working on a Plan B that would — if approved — prevent an election-year shutdown of the government, extending funding at least another month," according to NPR.

"Under the proposal, 70 percent of funding would be based on credit hours taken, with higher-level courses, and STEM courses (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) weighted more heavily. Total degrees awarded would account for 25 percent of funding, with student success — measured by several factors, including graduation and retention rates — accounting for 5 percent of the funding formula," according to the The Charleston Gazette. 

"The way our higher education finance system works, the federal government makes it easy for students to borrow money for college, no matter how academically weak and disengaged they might be. The whole system invites waste, fraud, and abuse and has proved to be tempting for school officials who want to bring in as much revenue as possible by enrolling very marginal students with promises of good careers after they graduate," George Leef writes in an opinion article for Forbes.  

"Republicans in Congress have no shortage of criticisms for the web of regulations that ostensibly hold the nation's colleges and universities to account...While there's a case to be made for slimming down some of these rules (multiple regulations are meant to enforce the same thing) the PROSPER Act does not propose an adequate replacement," Preston Cooper and Jason Delisle from the America Enterprise Institute write for U.S. News & World Report. 

"It is not surprising that students with more debt are more interested in income-driven repayment plans, as many borrowers with less debt could manage payments under the standard ten-year repayment plan. But I was surprised by how much of the debt is held by a small percentage of borrowers," Robert Kelchen writes on his blog.

"Though it might not have garnered as many headlines as President Trump’s tweets, 2017 saw an evolution in the way that policy wonks, policymakers, and the press talk about the problems facing higher education — and the solutions necessary to fix them. Over the last year, the conversation in higher education has made a marked shift away from focusing solely on costs towards emphasizing value," Tamara Hiler, senior policy analyst at Third Way, writes for Real Clear Education. 

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