Find financial stories in the business of higher education
By Flickr user velkr0
With little more than a month to go before Labor Day, back-to-school business topics are hot.
For business writers, financial aid is a rich field to mine, from how-to personal finance articles (see FinAid.org for a wealth of resources) to scams. This Federal Trade Commission report released earlier this month says fraudulent “financial aid consulting services” are on the rise. As readers are about to start signing on dotted lines, a package of tips and consumer caveats could save your audience some headaches.
Check with local banks and credit unions about how they are making do without student loan business, as the switch to direct loans from the Department of Education becomes the norm.
In a related story, for-profit schools are making news again as the U.S. Department of Education proposes rules that would tie the availability of financial aid to how an institution’s graduates do at repaying their loans. Here’s the education department’s press release from last Friday outlining in the plan, which involves tracking graduates’ debt-to-income ratios as well as loan delinquencies.
Response to the rules has been mixed; some groups – like the National Black Chamber of Commerce in this press release - say that restricting financial aid will curb access for minority students. But this Inside Higher Ed article points out that as written, the rules would exclude only about 5 percent of existing institutions from offering financial aid.
The proposal wasn’t as tough as expected, however, sending shares of these private schools soaring Monday. Education stocks are another timely topic for personal finance writers to explore; this Forbes article will provide helpful background. Other trade-school topics are here in my previous blog post about vocational institutions.
Another education-related financial story: College and university marketing campaigns. Lots of tuition dollars go toward branding and marketing colleges. From anecdotal observation, some public schools seem to be positioning themselves since the recession as higher-education bargains. On TV ads, billboards and the like I’ve seen numerous taglines that stress the economy and value of tuition rates, distance learning programs and other pocketbook matters. Look in to advertising plans by public colleges in your area – are they stressing economy over academics these days?
Resources include the Washington Post’s College Inc. blog as well as University Business and this interesting blog on “enrollment marketing.” Here’s my previous blog post on back-to-school shopping and related story ideas. Be sure to check with Main Street merchants about how they plan to get their piece of the pie.
