Dive Brief:

• A new report from the New America Foundation offers recommendations on how federal financial aid could be improved for students who are older and not entering college straight from high school.
• Among its recommendations, the report says that administrators should be able to override dependency restrictions on financial aid if the student can prove that he or she is self-sufficient.
• Also, the report says, colleges should be required to establish degree plans with incoming students to decrease the number of unnecessary courses the students take and ensure access to required classes

Dive Insight:

The report calls for conducting experiments related to non-traditional students. They would include operating emergency funds to pay for sudden, low-cost issues; allowing students to draw down grant aid on an account basis to help with irregular enrollment; and providing bonuses for hitting “credit accumulation momentum points.” The report was produced with funding from the second round of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery project.