Colleges used $13B in pandemic aid in 2021 to recover lost revenue

Higher Ed Dive

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

February 1, 2023

Dive Brief:

• U.S. colleges used almost $13 billion in federal pandemic assistance in 2021 to cover lost revenue, helping prevent cuts to jobs, academic programs and student support services.

• The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday released a report detailing how colleges leveraged pandemic aid in 2021, the same year Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, which provided nearly $40 billion in aid to colleges. The higher ed sector received about $76 billion total in relief money from several relief packages, beginning during the Trump administration.

• Colleges were legally required to dedicate a significant chunk of aid to financially distressed students. They reported distributing $19.5 billion in grants to 12.7 million students in 2021.

Dive Insight:

Policy experts largely credit federal pandemic aid dollars with cushioning colleges’ budgets during an economically tumultuous period, ensuring some institutions teetering on the brink of financial ruin survived. Colleges received funding directly from the federal government, but local and state governments also benefited from the aid packages, which likely helped them avoid egregious cuts to public higher education spending.

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