NASFAA

By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter As part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to reduce and prevent student loan default, the Department of Education (ED) via a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) on Wednesday announced a new initiative aimed at providing support to institutions in managing student loan default. With this new default prevention initiative, ED announced that it will host two webinars in the coming weeks for institutions.

"Mikiah Roberson expected to receive her federal $6,700 student loan disbursement sometime between May 27 and June 3, just in time to make her rent and car payments. Instead, June 3 came and went. Days, weeks and finally over a month passed," The Hechinger Report writes. ..."Under the master calendar, the department has to start the rulemaking process a full year and a half before the academic school year starts.

By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) has reintroduced legislation to prevent borrowers from defaulting on their student loans by allowing the Department of Education (ED) to notify at-risk borrowers and automatically enroll them in income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.

By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter The House on Tuesday cleared the Senate’s continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through December 11 by a vote of 370-48. Enactment of this bill would extend the spending deadline for fiscal year (FY) 2027 and prevent a government shutdown at the beginning of October. Prior to the summer recess, Congress was facing a September 30 deadline to continue funding the government for FY 2027.

"Republicans put limits on federal student loans hoping colleges would lower tuition, only to find that a few schools are leaning into a workaround: lending to their students directly," POLITICO reports.

By NASFAA Policy & Federal Relations Staff The Department of Education (ED) on Friday provided an updated spreadsheet showing schools’ submission status of gainful employment/financial value transparency (GE/FVT) data for the 2024 and 2025 reporting cycles in a blue note to a previously-issued announcement. The new spreadsheet reflects submission statuses as of August 25, 2026, whereas the previous spreadsheet included statuses as of August 6, 2026.

By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter A group of higher education experts gathered on Tuesday for an afternoon of panel discussions that evaluated several aspects of how graduate education is changing under the implementation of new graduate student loan caps of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which included a panel with NASFAA’s President and CEO Melanie Storey and a fireside chat with Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent.

By NASFAA Policy & Federal Relations Staff The Department of Education (ED) on Friday provided an updated spreadsheet showing schools’ submission status of gainful employment/financial value transparency (GE/FVT) data for the 2024 and 2025 reporting cycles in a blue note to a previously-issued announcement.The new spreadsheet reflects submission statuses as of August 25, 2026, whereas the previous spreadsheet included statuses as of August 6, 2026.

By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter A group of nine senators last week questioned MOHELA’s operations involving borrowers after reports indicated that the student loan servicer sent delinquency notices to borrowers who were not delinquent on their loans. The senators, led by Sens.

A majority of Americans (56%) do not believe traditional college is worth the cost, according to a 2023 public opinion poll in The Wall Street Journal. Current public debate regarding the cost of college echoes this belief. If the public’s faith in traditional college falters, what does that mean for an education system built on the idea that college is the primary pathway to success? What does the future of education look like if a growing number of students eschew college?