"In his State of the Union Speech last night, President Obama proposed reducing the interest rate on federally subsidized student loans in the 2013 fiscal year, expanding the Federal Work Study program, making the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent, and pressuring colleges to curb tuition growth," Stephen Burd writes in the Quick and Ed blog. "But he made no mention of Pell Grants."

"President Obama is proposing a financial aid overhaul that for the first time would tie colleges’ eligibility for campus-based aid programs - Perkins loans, work-study jobs and supplemental grants for low-income students - to the institutions’ success in improving affordability and value for students, administration officials said," the New York Times reports. "Under the plan, which the president is expected to outline on Friday morning in a speech at the University of Michigan, the amount available for Perkins loans would grow to $8 billion, from the current $1 billion."

"Undocumented students who get in-state tuition rates at Texas community colleges and universities will get annual reminders about their obligation to seek legal status in exchange for the break in their education expenses," the Texas Tribune reports. "The Texas Higher Education Board voted unanimously Thursday to tweak the policy for tuition breaks that can save students about half the cost of college tuition and fees."

"Congressman Joe Courtney today introduced legislation, H.R. 3826, to ensure that interest rates on certain student loans do not dramatically increase this year," LoanSafe.org reports. "In 2007, Congress made an historic investment in higher education when it passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act."

"College freshmen report more behaviors and attitudes that predict academic success than they did in recent years, according to a new national survey by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California, Los Angeles," the Christian Science Monitor reports. "The survey also shows shifts in political views, use of social media, and strategies for paying for college."

"More than 50,000 people have signed a petition on the online advocacy platform Change.org calling for education financer Sallie Mae to stop charging fees for late student loan payments, Change.org announced," the Credit Union Times reports. "The campaign’s leader, Stef Gray of Brooklyn, N.Y., argues that the education-focused financial services company unfairly charges a fee of $50 per loan for every three-month delayed payment time period, which unemployed college graduates can’t afford."

Jan. 26, 2012 - Higher education and economics expert David Feldman writes in the College of William & Mary's "Why Does College Cost So Much?" blog about his presentation at NASFAA's forum on "The State of College Access," and the perception that Pell Grants are the cause of price inflation in higher education.

"The collegiate graduation rate may well be the most poorly constructed and misunderstood statistic in all of higher education," the Washington Post reports. "The metric became fashionable in the 1990’s in an effort to track the academic condition of NCAA athletes who seemed to be leaving college in large numbers without graduating."

The Department of Education has made available Gainful Employment Webinar #5 Errors and Data Corrections in Gainful Employment Reporting on January 11, 2012 in Microsoft PowerPoint format.

"Attention college students: The interest rate on federal student loans is scheduled to double this summer unless Congress acts soon," CNN Money reports. "Loans taken out for the current school year carried an interest rate of 3.4%, thanks to a 2007 law that phased in rate reductions for subsidized Stafford loans to undergraduate students."