England’s ‘Access Agreements’ as Model for U.S.

By Elizabeth Redden. The U.S. should “seriously consider” adopting the English practice of entering into mandatory “access agreements” in order to expand access to higher education, argues a new working paper, “English and American Higher Education Access and Completion Policy Regimes: Similarities, Differences and Possible Lessons.” The report also argues that the U.S. should expand its use of income-contingent loans and follow England’s lead in providing prospective students with nationally comparative data about student experience, satisfaction and income returns at the level of individual programs. More...