Student Debt

In 2023 and 2024, TICAS collaborated with California’s statewide student associations to release three reports that provide valuable insights into the college affordability landscape across the state's public higher education systems. This fact sheet summarizes key findings about college costs, student debt, and aid uptake.

These fact sheets compare graduate and undergraduate debt for students across institution and degree types nationally and in California. We offer insight into changes as well as recommendations for policymakers to keep college accessible and affordable.  

On April 16, 2025, TICAS submitted a letter to the Assembly Higher Education Committee in support of Assembly Bill 791, an important step toward addressing students’ total costs of college. The bill would require institutions to develop and implement Cost of Attendance adjustment policies that allow students to pursue adjustments that better align with their financial costs.

On April 16, 2025, TICAS submitted a letter to the Assembly Higher Education Committee in support of Assembly Bill 850. TICAS supports the state taking critical steps toward addressing institutional debt and mitigating the debt collection practices that harm or end a student’s progress toward graduation.

Five years after our 2019 analysis of student borrowing rates across the University of California (UC) system, TICAS partnered with the University of California Student Association (UCSA) again to evaluate the state of affordability and student debt for undergraduates at the UC, and their implications for student success.

A collaboration between The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) and the Student Senate for California Community Colleges (SSCCC), this policy brief examines the costs of attending California Community Colleges (CCCs) for low-income students and the roles that financial aid resources, work hours, and student loan borrowing currently play in meeting those costs.