Dozens of higher education interest groups submitted comments last week on Senator Tom Harkin’s draft proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. The American Council on Education submitted a consensus letter, signed by 20 other higher education groups, that laid out provisions that garnered widespread support as well as concern. Read more...

The U.S. Department of Education will gather a panel of higher education stakeholders early next year to write the regulations needed to carry out President Obama’s orders to expand his federal income-based repayment program for student loans. The department will announce in Wednesday’s Federal Register that it plans to hold two public hearings on the plan this fall -- one in Washington and one in Anaheim, Calif. -- before it kicks off negotiated rule making sessions next February. Read more...

The federal government’s system for collecting debt from students who have defaulted on their federal student loans is poorly overseen and rife with perverse incentives for debt collection companies that harm consumers, according to a National Consumer Law Center report released Tuesday. Read more...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is struggling to track down more than 6,000 foreign nationals who overstayed their student visas and have not been located since, ABC News reported. Read more...