The role of the government in providing access to higher education: the case of government-sponsored financial aid in the US

The overall financial structure of US higher education has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, resulting in a significant reduction of public funding. One result of this shift has been the steadily increasing costs of tuition as an increasing portion of the financial structure of higher education is shifted to students. Increased costs to students have resulted in the emergence of complex access issues that stratify student participation across a number of variables, perhaps the most important being the ability to pay. Federal government efforts to assist within this equation have resulted in both the far greater capacity of students to borrow federal funds (or guaranteed funds), but with the result that in the changing job economy of the US students exhibit increased time to graduation, lessened success in gaining post-graduation employment and the prospect of significant debt repayment obligations. Overall, governmental policy may be contradictory within those aspects that seek to continue to provide increased access, including the rise of private sector for-profit education, and the overall ability of students and their families to sustain the associated costs.

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