The Top Ten Higher Ed Stories of 2013

Throughout 2013, New America’s higher education team has brought you regular news and analysis of the goings-on in institutions around the country and here in Washington, D.C. Below are the 10 biggest stories of the year. Check back in early 2014 for our key spots to watch in the coming year!

1. MOOCs on the Rise:

One thing that 2013 made clear: MOOCs aren’t going away anytime soon. The massive open online courses have huge potential to bring learning to more people, and to do it cheaper. New America’s Education Policy Program Director Kevin Carey dove into an edX MIT course on genetics and reported back on what it means for traditional higher education. And despite misleading recent reports that few registrants ever complete MOOC courses, Carey still sees their reach as well worth the effort.

2. Cracking the Credit Hour:

Back in 2012, New America’s Amy Laitinen published a report explaining how time-based metrics for federal financial aid hold students back from completing their degrees more quickly and less expensively, with more emphasis on learning and less on seat time. This year, the U.S. Department of Education took action, officially approving Southern New Hampshire University’s College for America as the first school to award federal aid based on direct assessment of students’ learning. There’s more to come with the Department's recent announcement that it would use experimental sites for direct assessment and other pilot projects.

3. The White House Ratings Plan: 

President Obama sent higher education stakeholders into a tizzy with his August announcement that the administration would implement a wide-ranging plan to get college costs under control. The centerpiece of the plan would rate colleges on a variety of metrics, and with Congressional approval, tie the ratings to financial aid eligibility. Over the objections of higher ed lobbyists who sought to defer the system by complaining about the lack of available data, the Department of Education has pushed forward with public comment sessions to develop a system that makes the best use of the data we have.

4. Resetting Student Loan Interest Rates: 

Congress may not have made many bipartisan moves this year, but lowering interest rates on federal student loans this summer was a big one. As New America’s Jason Delisle has proposed, the new rates are tied to the market, instead of fixed, and in the current 2013-14 school year, are lower for every student than they would have been had Congress failed to act. Still, some were hoping for a different deal -- like the ability to refinance federal student loans at lower rates.

5. The Numbers on Merit Aid: 

In May, New America’s Stephen Burd wrote a report showing that colleges are increasingly using their institutional financial aid as a competitive tool to reel in the top students, as well as the most affluent, to help them climb up the U.S. News & World Report rankings and maximize their revenue. This merit aid madness disproportionately benefits the wealthiest students at the expense of the poorest.

6. Questions on Income-Based Repayment:

Over the last year, the Department of Education has worked to promote and expand enrollment in its income-based repayment plan for federal student loans, Pay As You Earn. But according to New America’s Jason Delisle and Alex Holt, it may have unwittingly opened the door to massive tuition hikes and back-door loopholes for graduate students, instead of focusing benefits on struggling undergraduate borrowers. Georgetown even offers to repay its borrowers’ federal loans in exchange for 10 years of public service in any non-profit or government gig.

7. Policy Change for PLUS Loans: 

Late last year, the U.S. Department of Education quietly tightened the eligibility requirements for Parent PLUS loans. As a result, many families and higher-education institutions were shocked to find that parents approved for the loan one year were suddenly denied the next. Since the change was made, the Department and the White House have been publicly criticized for restricting access to Parent PLUS loans. But in a series of posts she has written this year, New America’s Rachel Fishman has shown that while the Department’s execution of the change was poor, its underlying motivation was sound. She also found that the schools most affected by the department’s policy change were for-profit colleges, not HBCUs.

8. Rewriting Gainful Employment: 

After being overturned by a court last year, the Department of Education’s gainful employment rule is back in play. The Department worked with industry representatives and education stakeholders on a rule, which would require certain programs mostly in the for-profit and community college sectors to meet defined standards. But when the negotiating group failed to reach agreement this month, it set things in motion for the Department to instead rewrite the rule itself. New America’s Ben Miller has some suggestions for the Department as it crafts the latest version of its controversial regulation.

9. Promoting Data Transparency:

President Obama kicked off the year by putting colleges “on notice” for ever-increasing costs. As the administration followed through on the promise later this year, postsecondary stakeholders kept coming back to one thing: We don’t know very much about colleges. For all the information the Department of Education collects, students and families have little information about their prospective schools, and policymakers barely know enough for even a baseline level of accountability. Data has taken the spotlight as one of the hottest topics around town, as many have begun to advocate for a federal system to track colleges’ outcomes and report back to families and policymakers. The topic’s likely to heat up even more as the White House proceeds with its college rating system and its gainful employment rule.

10. Lagging Adult Education: 

When the OECD released a report this year identifying one in six Americans as lacking basic skills necessary for the workforce, it sent a ripple through PreK-12 educators and analysts. Employers don’t see what they want from their applicants, and applicants aren’t learning the skills they need--both academic and practical--to join the workforce. Still, though, it’s clear employers have yet to join the employee education bandwagon in force, so much work remains to be done. And note -- this news story topped our PreK-12 list of key 2013 stories, too.