It’s no secret that the cost of a college education is on the rise. According to the Education Data Initiative, college tuition inflation averaged 12% annually from 2010 to 2022, with the cost of tuition at a public, 4-year institution increasing 9.24% during the same time period.
Today, over 80% of college students benefit from some form of financial aid. And as the cost of college continues to skyrocket, that need will only grow.
To further complicate matters, today, many students are exploring alternative enrollment models that give them the flexibility they need to balance college, home, and employment. And their expectation is that the institution they attend can make financial aid work, regardless of their enrollment model.
The reality, however, is that many institutions struggle to provide the support and experiences students expect. Bound by financial aid management (FAM) solutions that come packaged with their student information system, financial aid officers lack the functionality needed to support multiple enrollment models, maximize institutional scholarships, and give students the transparency they need to make smarter borrowing decisions. As the pressure to maximize enrollment increases, many FAM solutions lack the rich set of features needed to manage the complex, ever-changing financial aid environment.
There is good news, however. Because when it comes to financial aid management solutions, you have choices. Complete, best-of-breed solutions like those from Regent Education are built for financial aid, providing richer functionality and greater flexibility so your institution can manage the complexity of today’s financial aid environment and support enrollment growth. Delivered as a single, holistic platform, Regent Education provides the critical insight you need to increase your competitiveness, maximize your enrollment, allocate every available scholarship dollar, and eliminate financial aid barriers and frustrations.
Here are just a few of the capabilities that Regent Education provides that many other solutions lack.
Support for multiple enrollment models
Regent Education is the only FAM solution on the market that automates financial aid management across multiple enrollments and multiple cycles. Because Regent Education supports standard and non-standard terms, subscription periods, and non-term enrollment models, your staff can efficiently and effectively manage financial aid for all your CBE programs.
Rich integration capabilities
Regent Education integrates with any student information system, making it easy to connect with your SIS today while also future-proofing your investment as your institution grows. In addition, Regent Education integrates with your CRM to deliver a student-centric experience from recruiting to financial aid to enrollment. And for those institutions who use Salesforce as their CRM, Regent Education provides the only approved financial aid solution to fully integrate with Salesforce. These rich integrations ensure that data flows seamlessly across systems, giving everyone on campus the visibility they need to support enrollment and retention goals.
A better, more-informed student experience
Students today are taking on more debt than they have in the past. And not knowing how that debt adds up over time can be scary. Regent Education takes the fear out of student debt by increasing transparency into borrowing options so students can make the best decision for their situation. By giving students a holistic view of their debt from first class through graduation, students can make better-informed decisions about their student loans so they can borrow less. And using the personalized, integrated portal that’s accessible anytime, anywhere, students can easily access their financial aid status and take action on outstanding items.
Further, Regent Education automates the collection of verification documents which reduces stress and frustration for students and their parents or guardians.
Automated scholarship management
Regent Education enables your institution to compete for top students and exceed enrollment goals by maximizing every institutional scholarship dollar. Using automated scholarship management capabilities, you can eliminate manual processes and gain a complete, real-time view of eligible applicants across data sets, enabling you to take the initiative and award scholarships to the highest-priority recruits. You can also apply insight from updated data, integrated from your SIS or other systems, to quickly and proactively redeploy unused, canceled, or unaccepted scholarship dollars to the candidates you most want to enroll.
Prepared to manage FAFSA Simplification
At Regent Education, financial aid is all we do. We keep our finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the industry, and that includes the upcoming changes to the FAFSA. To prepare for the changes, we’ve been consulting with the Department of Education on a regular basis to ensure we have the latest information about the upcoming changes and anticipated impacts to our solutions. Our team has also been meeting with the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) every two months since July 2022, and have been attending all available NASFAA and Department of Education webinars so we’re always in the loop with the messages they’re sharing.
Preparing for changes like these is part of our DNA. And changes of this magnitude are stressful. But because our experts are former administrators, directors, and VPs who’ve walked in your shoes, they know what you’re going through and are doing everything they can to smooth the transition to the new FAFSA.
At Regent Education, we know that financial aid is complex. But we also know that with the right solution, managing it doesn’t have to be. And since financial aid is all we do, we’re on top of changes so we can ensure you always remain up-to-date and compliant.
So remember, when it comes to your financial aid management solution, you have options. And Regent Education is one of them. Our solutions are built for financial aid, providing you with a single platform that addresses all your financial aid needs. Our solutions automate the financial aid lifecycle across all enrollment models, integrate with any SIS, and provide the tools students need to make better borrowing decisions. And they’re ready to handle FAFSA Simplification, too.
Ready to learn more? Let’s chat!
