Policy Organizations in Higher Education

This page lists organizations whose primary work is higher-education policy research and advocacy, distinct from the professional and sector associations on the Higher Education Organizations page and the research institutes on the Higher Education Research Centers page. A link audit of the original list cut it from 86 entries to the ones confirmed active; several others had gone dead or now redirect to unrelated businesses.

Policy Research and Advocacy

• American Enterprise Institute. Think tank with an active education policy program.
• National Bureau of Economic Research. Economic research, including on higher education financing and outcomes.
• Center for Individual Rights. Public-interest law firm active in higher-education civil rights litigation.
• Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

State and Interstate Policy Bodies

• National Conference of State Legislatures. Tracks state-level higher education legislation.
• Southern Regional Education Board. Interstate compact on education policy for the southern United States.
• Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, New York’s independent-sector advocacy organization.
• Minnesota Private College Council (redirected from its former mn-colleges.org address).

Financial Aid and Access

• FinAid. Independent guide to financial aid for college.
• National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs.
• National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Sector and Membership Organizations

• American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
• American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
• Council of Independent Colleges.
• Association of University Technology Managers.
• Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute, UNCF’s research arm.

International

• OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. The original link pointed to a since-reorganized page on the OECD site; this links to their education section directly.
• Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education, Williams College.

Several organizations reached only a bot-verification wall during this audit (Council of Independent Colleges, National Conference of State Legislatures, Southern Regional Education Board, National Bureau of Economic Research, Williams Project, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, and the Patterson Research Institute) and are kept above based on being well-established, active organizations rather than confirmed by a direct page load.

Dropped from the original list: several links had gone dead outright, and one, collegeispossible.org, now redirects to an unrelated hotel-booking domain hosting orphaned content, a sign the original domain lapsed and was picked up by an unrelated party. That entry has been removed rather than carried forward.

Corrections are welcome via the contact page.