The number of colleges and universities offering student loans through the government's direct loan program rose sharply last year, a trend that could strengthen Obama administration efforts to end subsidies to lenders that provide student loans. The administration's budget proposes replacing the 44-year-old Federal Family Education Loan Program with direct loans from the government. President Clinton created the direct loan program in 1993, but it has historically accounted for only a fraction of federal student loans. In the past year, though, the number of colleges and universities originating loans through the direct loan program rose more than 50%, according to the Department of Education...
...A survey from the nonprofit Commonfund Institute of Wilton, Conn., found that college endowments across the nation lost an average of 24 percent of their value during the six months preceding Dec. 31, 2008. How that drop in endowment value is affecting scholarship money is now becoming more clear...
Expanding the Perkins Loan program, as
President Obama has proposed, will help millions of middle-class
families afford college, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said
on Wednesday at the Association for Career and Technical Education's
annual conference. The extra aid, Mr. Duncan said, would provide "an
unprecedented chance for families to go on to college ... at a time
when going to college has never been more important, more critical"... (paid
subscription required)
Officials at the Colorado State University system want a different kind of chancellor, and they think they can find one without the help of a search firm. Universities almost always hire outside consultants to assist in searches for presidents and chancellors. Search firms typically charge a fee of one-third of the value of the eventual hire's first-year pay, plus all expenses. Colorado State's Board of Governors nixed that standard practice because the governors felt the search committee's 15 members could find solid candidates on their own... (paid subscription required)
The $410-billion spending bill that President Obama signed on Wednesday contains a provision that will allow pharmaceutical companies to once again supply college-health clinics with discounted birth-control pills and other contraceptives... (paid subscription required)
...The new analysis found that the average grade-point average at private colleges rose from 3.09 in 1991 to 3.30 in 2006. At public colleges and universities, the increase was from 2.85 to 3.01 over the same time period. The study also examines -- and seeks to refute -- the idea that students are earning better grades simply because they are better prepared. The greatest increases in grades appear to be coming at flagship public universities in the South and at selective liberal arts colleges...
More than a decade ago, the trend of colleges buying laptops for their students or partially subsidizing the cost was all the rage. Now, with the economy in shambles and students bringing more of their own technology to campus, some institutions are reevaluating their laptop programs...
