Building on CUNY’s Success: Meeting Students’ Basic Needs in Changing Times

This blog provides a history and overview of CUNY's opportunity programs, demonstrating their national model for how campuses can test and grow student success initiatives.

As federal policy drives more graduate students to the private loan market, this blog outlines strategies for state policymakers to strengthen consumer protections, expand transparency, and ensure that the financial aid landscape works in the best interest of students—not lenders.

In December 2025, The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), in partnership with Young Invincibles and uAspire, hosted our first forum for advocates working on student-centered higher education policy in New York State. This blog recaps the day's events, key themes, and next steps.

As part of HR 1, Congress expanded Pell Grant access to short-term programs for the first time. Without careful implementation, this move may leave students and Pell dollars vulnerable to untested, low-quality, overly expensive, or fraudulent programs. In response, TICAS created model legislation to provide a blueprint for states to protect students and taxpayers.

This blog and accompanying fact sheet summarize higher education bills that have advanced in the first year of New York's 2025-2026 legislative session across TICAS priority areas.

With the passage of Governor Kathy Hochul’s New York State Opportunity Promise Scholarship, New York joins a handful of states providing free college for adult learners. While Opportunity Promise is a step in the right direction to making higher education accessible to all New Yorkers, our new blog assesses potential obstacles to its impact.