Browsing by Author "Voight, Mamie"

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14
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    The Burden of Non-Tuition Costs
    Eckerson Peters, Eleanor; Voight, Mamie; Roberson, Amanda Janice (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2018)
    Tuition and fees comprise only a portion of students’ college costs. Students must also pay for housing, food, and child care—expenses that can’t be put on hold while they’re enrolled. Repeatedly in our conversations, students said that covering these non-tuition costs, in addition to buying books and course materials, paying for transportation to and from school and work, and handling unforeseen emergencies present significant financial burdens. This report examines each of these non-tuition costs and provides policy recommendations.
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    The Cost of Opportunity: Student Stories of College Affordability
    Eckerson Peters, Eleanor; Voight, Mamie; Roberson, Amanda Janice (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2019-05-01)
    This report elevates students’ stories to contextualize and illuminate financial barriers to college access and success. The report. shares the perspectives and aspirations of 17 low-income and working-class students based on interviews IHEP conducted over two semesters of their college journeys. The report identifies opportunities for policymakers and institutional leaders to support all students through completion, grounded in students' experiences and the affordability challenges that they face.
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    Do Tennessee Promise and New York’s Excelsior Scholarship Help Students With Limited Means Afford College?
    Poutré, Alain; Voight, Mamie (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2018-09-01)
    As college costs steadily rise, students face unprecedented financial barriers as they pursue higher education. Many federal, state, and institutional policy makers tout free-college programs as solutions to addressing college affordability challenges. But IHEP analysis of two state free-college programs, Tennessee Promise and New York’s Excelsior Scholarship, show that to help low-income students afford college, free-college programs must be designed with equity at their core. The report identifies opportunities to better target existing programs and puts forth recommendations to help design equity-driven federal and state free-college programs.
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    Employing Postsecondary Data for Effective State Finance Policymaking
    Rorison, Jamey; Voight, Mamie; Engle, Jennifer (Lumina Foundation, 2016-03-01)
    Outcomes-based higher education funding structures have gained popularity in recent years as a means for achieving the goal of linking public investment in our colleges and universities to the social and economic benefits that states reap with an educated citizenry. The outcomes-based models represent an evolution of performance-based funding models with a more exclusive focus on student progression and completion and financial alignment to state attainment needs. Even states that choose not to implement outcomes-based funding stand to benefit from a stronger understanding of data systems and the ways that states can use data to inform decision making more broadly. Compiling information from 31 states, this report evaluates the measures and metrics commonly used in outcomes-based funding systems, identifies a core set of measures and metrics that can help state leaders assess the performance of their higher education system, evaluates data availability and catalogues useful data sources.
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    Equity Snapshot: The Ohio State University – Main Campus
    Eckerson Peters, Eleanor; Voight, Mamie (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2018-10-01)
    Public flagship universities were established with a mission to provide an excellent education to their states’ residents and are therefore well-positioned to enhance social and economic mobility within their states. Yet in many cases, too few low-income students and students of color have access to these elite colleges and the opportunities they provide. This analysis of racial and socioeconomic equity at The Ohio State University – Main Campus (OSU-Main Campus) finds large and growing gaps in college access, as well as gaps in college completion, by race and socioeconomic status. To serve as a catalyst for mobility and equity in Ohio, OSU-Main Campus must do a better job enrolling and graduating low-income students and students of color.
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    Equity Snapshot: University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
    Eckerson Peters, Eleanor; Voight, Mamie (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2018-10-01)
    Public flagship universities were established with a mission to provide an excellent education to their states’ residents and are therefore well-positioned to enhance social and economic mobility within their states. Yet in many cases, too few low-income students and students of color have access to these elite colleges and the opportunities they provide. This analysis of racial and socioeconomic equity at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (U of M Twin Cities) finds large and growing gaps in college access and completion by race and socioeconomic status. To serve as a catalyst for mobility and equity for the state of Minnesota, the U of M Twin Cities must do a better job enrolling and graduating low-income students and students of color.
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    Inequities Persist: Access and Completion Gaps at Public Flagships in The Great Lakes Region
    Eckerson Peters, Eleanor; Voight, Mamie (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2018-10-01)
    Public flagship universities were established to provide educational opportunities to state residents and have a responsibility to promote social and economic mobility. But new IHEP research reveals that six of these premier public institutions are failing to enroll and graduate representative shares of their state’s low-income students and students of color. The individual “Equity Snapshots” reveal that, while these universities are enrolling slightly more Black, Latino, and low-income students than in the past, this progress has not kept pace with changing state demographics. In fact, the access gap for Black students is widening at some flagships. Similarly, while most of the schools have raised their completion rates, students of color and low-income students are still less likely to earn degrees than their White and higher-income peers.
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    Informing Improvement: Recommendations for Enhancing Accreditor Data-Use to Promote Student Success and Equity
    Arnold, Nathan; Voight, Mamie; Morales, Jessica; Dancy, Kim; Coleman, Art (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2019-06-01)
    As the higher education landscape has expanded beyond issues of access and affordability to include an emphasis on student completion and employment outcomes, accreditors can play a leadership role in advancing this important change. A shift to student success that rightfully centers in part on closing equity gaps between low-income students and students of color and their peers ensures that students from all backgrounds have a genuine opportunity to thrive in and after college. In this context, the authors offer three recommendations for proactive steps that accreditors can take to incorporate outcomes-focused, equity-minded data into the entire review cycle to spur more evidence-driven institutional improvement.
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    Limited Means, Limited Options College Remains Unaffordable for Many Americans
    Poutré, Alain; Rorison, Jamey; Voight, Mamie (Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2017-03-01)
    Higher education offers people from all walks of life the opportunity to achieve a more secure future for themselves and their families. The US was built in part on the idea that, with hard work and a good education, any American should be able to climb the ladder of social and economic mobility. The very notion of the American Dream is based on that concept of freedom— that we are not condemned to a particular social or economic class. Unfortunately, high college costs are stymieing progress for Americans of limited financial means, undermining the ideals of opportunity and fairness. To better understand the nature and scope of inequities in college affordability, IHEP’s research—comparing the Benchmark’s affordability thresholds for ten theoretical 21st-century students with over 2,000 colleges’ net prices—confirms how unaffordable college has become for many Americans. The data show wide variation in affordability between students with different income backgrounds. In fact, although the student from the highest income quintile in these analyses could afford to attend ninety percent of colleges in the sample, the low- and moderate-income students with fewer financial resources could only afford one-to-five percent of colleges. While it is clear that very few colleges meet a reasonable threshold of affordability for students of modest means, federal, state, and institutional policymakers can help level the playing field. This paper offers five recommendations to address issues of affordability that negatively affect college access and completion.
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    New York’s Excelsior Scholarship: Does It Help Students with Limited Financial Means Afford College?
    Poutré, Alain; Voight, Mamie (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2018-09-01)
    Launched in 2017, New York’s Excelsior Scholarship makes the state’s public colleges tuition-free for low- and middle-income state residents who meet several conditions. The program, championed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, is billed as a middle-class program that aims to make City University of New York (CUNY) and State University of New York (SUNY) colleges more accessible while requiring beneficiaries to stay in the state after graduation. But program details matter. This analysis of Excelsior examines the effects of the program’s design and recommends further enhancements that will redirect program resources to help low-income students pay for college.
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    Opportunity Lost: Net Price and Equity at Public Flagship Institutions
    Mugglestone, Konrad; Dancy, Kim; Voight, Mamie (Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2019-09-01)
    While the best path to economic mobility is still a college degree, higher education remains unaffordable for many of those who could benefit the most. America’s public flagship institutions hold enormous potential for offering an affordable pathway to a high-quality bachelor’s degree. However, the analysis of the net price at these institutions for different types of students finds that many flagships are failing to live up to this promise. Using output from institutional net price calculators for first-year students from different socioeconomic backgrounds and comparing these prices to how much students and their families can afford, the authors find enormous gaps in affordability for all but the wealthiest students.
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    Promoting Equity Through Need-Based Aid
    Eckerson Peters, Eleanor; Voight, Mamie; Roberson, Amanda Janice (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2018)
    A college degree acts as a catalyst for economic and social mobility for low-income and working-class students and students of color. But higher education cannot fulfill its true potential as a driver of equity and mobility without tackling the nation’s college affordability problem for low-income and working-class students. Discussions with students make clear that targeted need-based financial aid is necessary to overcome substantial affordability challenges and provide all students with access to the benefits of higher education.
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    Serving Their Share: Some Colleges Could Be Doing a Much Better Job Enrolling and Graduating Low-Income Students
    Campbell, Colleen; Voight, Mamie (Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2015-10-01)
    The report outlines ways colleges and universities can improve access and attainment for underserved students, particularly Pell Grant recipients, who come from low-income backgrounds. The report lists ten prominent public institutions which are failing to enroll as many low-income, high-achieving students as they could, based on their selectivity and other institutions’ enrollment patterns. It also features interviews with administrators from access-improving institutions who exhibit deliberate recruitment and strong leadership focused on recruitment and retention of Pell students.
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    Tennessee Promise: Does It Help Students with Limited Financial Means Afford College?
    Poutré, Alain; Voight, Mamie (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2018-09-01)
    Tennessee is at the vanguard of the free-college movement. Launched in 2015, Tennessee Promise makes technical and community colleges tuition-free for recent high school graduates in the state. With the addition of Tennessee Reconnect in 2018, adult students can attend tuition-free as well. The efforts of the state’s leadership, especially its willingness to re-examine the program and expand it to support adult learners, is commendable. But program details matter. This analysis of Tennessee Promise and Reconnect examines the effects of the program’s design and recommends enhancements that will redirect program resources to help low-income students pay for college.