Student funding in institutions of higher education is an important and vital role that the career college president must address. This is because without it, an institution cannot function or carry out its mandate. While students can get a limited amount of funds from their college, it is not usually enough to meet the majority of their needs. This is despite the fact that the loans and grants offered by institutions may be a primary source of funds for many. However, others often have to seek additional funding from alternative sources. Here are a few sources that the office of the college president advice students to approach for help. The government has set in place a body that provides funds for students. The funds are often in loan form and students repay them after they have secured employment after graduation. A student may also claim social security benefits from the government. Students with low income or whose sponsors are low income earners may apply for tax credits. Both part time and full time students are eligible to to apply and receive the funds. Additional sources of funding can be accessed from sponsorship programmes from faith based organizations, educational foundations among others. Some educational charities and trusts also offer grants and scholarships (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2016). A major concern arising from financial aid services is fraud. Some students divert the funds they receive to personal use. Some make it a source of income and they drop out of school and survive entirely on the financial aid. Others apply for funds under multiple identities. Late disbursement of funds, complex application processes and limited allocation of funds distributed are all issues that students grapple with. Institutions of higher education often provide guidelines and suggestions on the ways that the process can be made easier. There are also mechanisms in place to safeguard against attempted fraud cases (Juszkiewicz, 2014). Student funding and financial aid issues do not only affect students and the institutions where they pursue their higher education. Financial aid has been affected by corruption as much as every other industry. Disbursement of funds is a process that does not only affect students but the community at large. Qualified students who are denied a rightful allocation of the financial aid may be unable to pursue their education to its successful end. This has led to the growth of entrepreneurship in the lives of business minded students. They often turn to low and middle level occupations to supplement their earnings. Some have succeeded in this ventures to the point where they abandoned the pursue of higher education. This has created a gap of skilled labor in some fields and industries (Karhunen et al., 2016). The disenfranchised students may alternatively turn to illegal and immoral acts in order to raise funds. This is one of the reasons why intelligent crime syndicates have mushroomed. They include cyber crimes such as hacking and illegal money transfers. On the other hand, those who have access to the financial aid show positive outcomes. First the students and their families enjoy some level of flexibility because of the financial freedom that the aid accords them. The aid also boosts book sellers and other tertiary institutions which support education. Secondly, some students access more funds than they need. The money is used to support their families and even establish businesses that generate additional income (Sandeen & Barr, 2014). Funding students and financial aid has become a big industry. This has created many jobs for people who mann this systems. The jobs roles include processing of students applications for loans, performing background checks for the applicants and cross checking data bases to avoid fraud. Other jobs include liaising with educational institutions, successful applicants and financing bodies. Loan recovery services are also a part of the industry (Sandeen & Barr, 2014).
References
Goldrick-Rab, S., Kelchen, R., Harris, D. N., " Benson, J. (2016). Reducing income inequality in educational attainment: Experimental evidence on the impact of financial aid on college completion. American Journal of Sociology , 121 (6), 1762-1817. Juszkiewicz, J. (2014). Community College Students and Federal Student Financial Aid: A Primer. American Association of Community Colleges . Karhunen, H., Määttänen, N., " Uusitalo, R. (2016). Reforming student financial aid–estimates from a structural model (No. 59). The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy. Sandeen, A., " Barr, M. J. (2014). Critical issues for student affairs: Challenges and opportunities . John Wiley " Sons.
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