What does it mean for college to be affordable?It sounds like a straightforward question. We can look at tuition and fees, cost of attendance, financial aid, net price, student debt, and, increasingly, earnings data. At ...

Federal Student Aid (FSA) has published the first installment of a new NSLDS Earnings Accountability User Guide, posting “Chapter 1—Completers List” on November 4, 2026, as the operational reference ins...

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has proposed revising its Secretary’s Supplemental Priorities and Definitions—the discretionary-grant priorities used to shape its competitive grant competitions—an...

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) has joined more than 40 higher education associations on an October 29, 2026, comment letter urging the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to withdraw or narrow a proposed rul...

The U.S. Department of Education on October 30, 2026, published a final rule revising how it recognizes the accrediting agencies whose recognition determines which institutions can access federal student aid. The rule, &...

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is asking the public how it should redesign its portfolio of studies—the administrative data collections and sample surveys that include the Integrated Postsecond...

As the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) marks its 60th anniversary, its 2025–26 Annual Report is now available. The report looks back on a year when AIR’s community grew larger and more connected ...

Why a single year can’t answer that question—and what three simulations show about how long it actually takes to know your retention rates are changing.An interactive version of the article can be found here:...

Why the next generation of funded workforce programs will be built on ETL pipelines, not just good intentions.If your institution has ever lost grant funding for a workforce program that everyone agreed was a good idea, ...

The irony of a short piece with this title is that I almost didn’t make the time to write it. My top priority right now is getting a position for my team posted and starting the hiring process as soon as possible. ...

At AIHEC, my work focuses on managing AIHEC’s internal institutional research data system known as the American Indian Measures of Success (AIMS). This data collected from each of our member institutions is then le...

A lawsuit by four higher education associations challenging federal guidance on international students' work training is set for a preliminary injunction hearing November 6, 2026, in Association of American Universities ...

Every workplace sits atop mountains of data distributed across bespoke and commercially acquired systems. For executive leaders, achieving data-driven decision-making is an ongoing quest, in which they are deeply depende...

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) is preparing public comments on the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed changes to the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS), Version 34. To mak...

New federal reporting and accountability requirements are changing what institutions have to submit and how their results will be measured. Two free webinars this November could help IR professionals and campus leaders p...

Accurate and reliable reporting for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) has always mattered. Helping institutions produce high-quality data is central to AIR’s work. For more than two decades...

The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a new study of how and why colleges close or suspend academic programs, opening a 60-day public comment period through December 14, 2026, under an information collection noti...

The U.S. Department of Education has set a final deadline of January 15, 2027, for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment (FVT/GE) data reporting, covering the 2024, 2025, and 2026 cycles, after the October ...

The median earnings of 93% of undergraduate programs exceed the new federal earnings-premium standard enacted under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OB3), according to When Purpose Meets Payoff, a report the Institute for...

The U.S. Department of Education and the American Council on Education (ACE) will host a free webinar on November 10, 2026, from 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET to help colleges and universities meet Financial Value Transparency...