News Scoop

Lenders that market private loans directly to students are increasingly using state open government laws to demand public colleges turn over personal data on their students.

Late last month, student loan giant Sallie Mae filed a

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With release of a more than $20 billion higher education budget reconciliation plan that slashes student loan provider subsidies over the next five years and includes a groundbreaking pilot auction program that uses market forces to set student loan subsidy rates, the U.S. Congress moved to dramatically increase student financial aid. This…

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You can do a lot of things with $108,000 - send close to 50 students to community college for a year, fund 50 Pell Grants or donate 6,033 copies of the forthcoming Harry Potter book to your local school - to name just a few. But Sallie Mae is hoping $108,000 can…

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Higher Ed Watch has learned that a top Education Department official held at least $100,000 worth of stock in a student loan company that may have substantially benefited from its ties to him.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing by Education Lending Group (see chart…

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As per an investigation by the New America Foundation, Higher Ed Watch has learned of several financial aid administrators who had significant personal investments in a publicly traded, for-profit student loan company. Following our request for university comment, an implicated Dean was…

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Just when things were starting to look bad for the student loan industry, Sallie Mae Chairman Al Lord made them even worse.

Congressional leaders announced today they are investigating whether Mr. Lord received…

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Higher Ed Watch has learned that the New York State Attorney General's Office has begun looking into the sweetheart deals that some lenders have struck with financial aid administrators to win student loan business.

In late December,

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Six weeks ago, Loan to Learn, a private student loan company, rose to defend the "integrity and intentions of financial aid professionals" accused of receiving cash and in-kind payments for driving students to particular college loan providers.

The company wrote an open letter saying, "It is Loan to…

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