Recently, there are many public policy initiatives in efforts by the administrator to response to the US student loan crisis and the US higher ed system in general.  At least there are two plans, what the public heard in the past weeks. The first initiative is to limit the amount of taken student loans.  The second proposed change is called Higher Education Act (HEA) which was announced on March 18, 2019.  HEA will focus to improve education quality, students learning outcomes and to restructure the accreditation agencies away from the current regional setting.  Needless to say, that AAEA has conducted and posted in its Blog studies and analyses on the effectiveness of these agencies with discouraging results.

If the lawmakers vote for HEA and capping the student loans become a reality, then what are the impacts of these proposed changes on the US higher ed institutions? One thing for sure, demand for private student loans will increase and it may negatively affect college enrollment, especially for small-private, Liberal Arts institutions.  Both proposals will put new pressures on college decisionmakers at the US higher learning institutions to innovate.  Without it, survival will be put on the line.  Again education analytics will be called to defend many institutions, big or small, state-owned or private, profit or non-profit.  That having said, demand for professionals with the IRI expertise will never be filled in the near future. The dire needs for an IRI or education analytics background are real. Currently many organizations cannot fill the positions easily beyond research analyst.  The reason is simple because ∃ only a finite  number of professionals that have the core competence and majority of the IRI elements.