Abstract
The reform of the student financial aid system is one of the policy challenges in Japanese higher education. The purpose of this paper is to consider the relationships between the student aid policies and the financial gap in the United States in order to get some basic information for Japan's policy development.
The "student financial aid policies" in the United States have more types of the programs than Japan's "SHOGAKUKIN" policies. They belong to three main public policies as follows: (a) (narrowly defined) student financial aid policies (SHOGAKUKIN policies), (b) tax and financial policies, (c) tuition and fee policies. Although the student financial aid (narrow definition) has been developed for equal opportunity of education, it could not catch up with the increases in tuition and fees. The college entry rates of low-income students continue to lag behind their middle-and upper-income peers. Whereas the problem had not been solved, new tax policies were introduced for the middle/upper-income families in the late 1990s.
The report of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, "Access Denied: Restoring the Nation's Commitment to Equal Educational Opportunity" drew attention to the shift in policy priorities away form "access for low-income students" to "affordability for middle/upper-income students" at the federal, state, and institutional level. This trend could hamper the "universal access" to higher education. It must be noted that the programs for low-income students and middle/upper-income students are debated, legislated and administered separately by different decision-making and implementation processes.
In order to address the problems, the following programs are considered as useful solutions by the researchers. Prior to entry to college, "Early Intervention programs" and "College Saving Plans" are effective for lowincome students and families. The Early Intervention programs should be organized to create a school culture that enhances students' college aspirations. New College Saving Plans must be developed for low-income families, in addition to the current "529 plans" for middle/upper-income families. After entrance into college, some incentives such as paying institutions for special programs of the Pell grant recipients are needed to raise the persistence rates. After graduation, the collection programs for low-income students, such as "Income Contingent Repayment Plans", and tax benefit programs for students of all income levels should be developed. The universal access to colleges in "Lifelong Learning Society" requires tax benefit programs for nontraditional students and distance learners.
