The belief that every student should have access to an affordable, high-quality education is the one of the core tenets underpinning higher education -- and our society as a whole. Yet in the US, this concept is far from reality: the Princeton Review’s Annual Hopes and Worries Survey reveals that students’ and parents’ top concerns about college are related to cost: 41% are worried about the amount of debt that they will have to take on, while 28% are concerned that even if they get into their first-choice college, they won’t be able to afford it. (When the survey was first released in 2003, the number-one fear that students wouldn’t get accepted into their first-choice school – a clear sign that cost now takes precedence over all other concerns).
This theme – helping students pay for college – was the subject of a recent webinar hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education and sponsored by Oracle. Its speakers included a panel of subject matter experts on financial aid, from institutional leaders and scholars like Holy Cross’s Cornell B. LeSane II, University of Texas at San Antonio’s Vanessa Sansone and Georgia State’s Atia Lindley to leading financial aid consultant Mark Kantrowitz and Oracle VP of Student Financial Planning John Refila.
Many of the issues surrounding financial aid are structural, based on federal and state policies and regulations. Others are occurring at the institutional level, due to reliance on manual processes and outdated systems, or a lack of resources or time to build more personalized, proactive relationships with students and their families. “We are seeing changes in legislation to try to remove burdens and increase access and simplify processes,” Refila says. “What’s great is that there are also changes in technology that are supporting that too…to take the burden off of not just the students but the institutions simultaneously.”
Oracle Student Financial Planning automates 90%+ of the financial aid process, integrating seamlessly with the IRS and the Department of Education FAFSA data, as well as private and public funding sources (like grants, loans, and scholarships), to build optimized, accurate financial aid award packages for students. Automating financial aid removes the burden of manual processes, so that, as Refila says, “staff finally have the time to actually connect with students.”
Click here to learn more about the webinar and how the panelists' own institutions are rethinking their policies and building trust with their students or here to watch a replay of the webinar.