Higher Education Finance
The American higher education system is afflicted by a crisis of quality, affordability, and access that belies its role in building an equitable and just society. This has found most pernicious expression in the mounting problem of student debt, a $1.7 trillion burden affecting over 42 million people. This burden often now extends to students’ families, and is disproportionately shouldered by historically marginalized groups. Absent any meaningful constraint on college costs, the student debt trap risks putting higher education – and its promise of economic mobility – out of reach for ordinary and low-income Americans.
JFI approaches the problem of higher education finance in two principal ways. First, we analyze interlinked, nationally-representative datasets to offer a detailed picture of student debt, examining race, ethnicity and class intersections, labor markets, and the impacts of institution type and geographic concentration. With this analysis, we identify high-impact policy interventions to address the existing debt burden and the broader affordability crisis. Second, we design, consult on, and produce research on income-contingent financing, an alternative to traditional student loans under which students pledge a percent of their income over a limited period. Designed with adequate safeguards, income-contingent financing reduces students’ risk by ensuring their payments never exceed their ability to pay.
PARTNER WITH US
We welcome academic and philanthropic partners interested in using our student debt data for collaborative or independent research. We have collaborated with educational institutions, scholarship funds (notably, the Student Freedom Initiative), workforce development agencies, and a range of investors on income contingent finance pilots, and we welcome further inquiries. We also provide analytics, evaluation, and design consulting for existing providers in order to ensure equitable, transparent and accountable financing.
PARTNERS

Featured Partners
Higher Education Finance Contributors

Eduard Nilaj
Data Science Research Associate

Ege Aksu
Fellow

Francis Tseng
Lead Independent Researcher

Halah Ahmad
Vice President, Lead Researcher for Policy

Laura Beamer
Lead Researcher

Marshall Steinbaum
Senior Fellow

Roberta Costa
Research Manager

Sérgio Pinto
Fellow

Sidhya Balakrishnan
Director of Research

Yunjie Xie
Fellow
Related Publication Series

Millennial Student Debt
Recent Updates
Forum on Education Deserts: Supporting Rural Regions With Fewer Colleges
On May 23, The Chronicle of Higher Education hosts a forum featuring JFI's Laura Beamer on higher education deserts in the...
Eduard Nilaj’s higher education analysis in Supreme Court amicus brief
Nilaj's work from Millennial Student Debt was cited by student loan experts.
Coverage of Millennial Student Debt
Marketwatch, Fortune, and Bloomberg covered our recent releases on the student debt crisis.
New Release: JFI’s Annual Student Debt Report, 2022
The 2022 "Student Debt and Young America" annual report shows a continued debt crisis but promising trends during three years of...
Student Debt and Young America in 2022 – Annual Report and Data Comparison Tool
The annual report provides a full analysis of the state of student debt in 2022—and what it could look like...
Part of the series Millennial Student Debt
The Distribution of Student Debtors: Data, Narrative, and Debt Cancellation
The report analyzes demographic distributions of student debt burdens and repayment, providing a counterpoint to narratives that suggest the wealthy...
Part of the series Millennial Student Debt
New Student Debt Report Compares Debtor Makeup to Narratives on Debt Cancellation
The tenth installment in the ongoing Millennial Student Debt project, Laura Beamer's newest report combines three datasets to analyze debt...
Press coverage on JFI’s Higher Education Finance research
A roundup of recent coverage.
Research by Laura Beamer and Eduard Nilaj in the New York Times
JFI's higher ed research cited by David Brooks
Lead Researcher Laura Beamer on the Brian Lehrer Show
Beamer spoke about student debt cancellation
Cost Deception at Elite Private Colleges
Following Millennial Student Debt Part 7, "How Schools Lie: The Deceptive Financial Aid System at America's Colleges," Laura Beamer and Eduard...
Part of the series Millennial Student Debt
Rules, Accountability, and the Student Debt Crisis – New report from Laura Beamer
The paper explores the cross-section of the student debt crisis and key accountability measures under discussion in the Dept. of...
Coverage of “Homeownership and Student Debt” in Bloomberg, Politico
"Homeownership and Student Debt" is the eighth post in JFI's Millennial Student Debt project
Homeownership and the Student Debt Crisis
The homeownership rate among student borrowers declined by 24 percent from 2009 to 2019. Asian- and Black-plurality US Census Tracts saw the steepest...
Part of the series Millennial Student Debt
Homeownership and the Student Debt Crisis: Latest research from the Millennial Student Debt project
The eighth report in JFI’s student debt project, the research explores links between rising student debt and declining homeownership...
JFI higher education research supplements grassroots “Debt-Free College” week of action
As part of the Higher Ed Not Debt campaign of Generation Progress, JFI joined other research and policy organizations to...
Investments in Tuition-Free College: Where the US has been and where America’s College Promise would take us
Join us for a Research Session with Peter Granville, Senior Policy Associate at The Century Foundation, drawing on his recent...
Laura Beamer in Open Campus
Scott Smallwood: "We spend a lot of time talking about the cost of college. But what if the numbers we’...
How Schools Lie: The Deceptive Financial Aid System at America’s Colleges
A view into how colleges mislead students about the true cost of college, which exacerbates delays in completion, drop outs,...
Part of the series Millennial Student Debt
New Research in Millennial Student Debt: How Schools Lie
In "How Schools Lie: The Deceptive Financial Aid System at America's Colleges," JFI researchers explore how higher education institutions mislead...
Student loans, the racial wealth divide, and why we need full student debt cancellation
“No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do...
Part of the series Millennial Student Debt
Marshall Steinbaum publishes new student debt research; Brookings event
A report focusing on three student debt–related outcomes: total individual balances, total required monthly payments, and whether an individual...
Hysteresis and Student Debt
Sérgio Pinto and Marshall Steinbaum bring together the labor economics literature on hysteresis and ongoing research into shape of...
Part of the series Millennial Student Debt
New Publication: The Right Way to Cancel Student Debt
A data-driven case for universal, automatic, and generous debt cancellation.