TG Updates

New School and Lender Fact Sheets provide expanded overview of higher education in Texas
TG recently released a new edition of its School and Lender Fact Sheets, incorporating new data from Fiscal Year 2003. The resource provides valuable information about Texas schools, the lenders they work with, and the students they serve.

Federal Updates

Economic hardship deferment form updated with latest poverty guidelines
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has updated the United States federal poverty guidelines in the Federal Register dated February 13, 2004. The 2004 poverty guideline figure for a family of two is $12,490 for the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. In Alaska, the figure is $15,610, and in Hawaii, the figure is $14,360.

Legislative Update

The March 2 issue of TG's Legislative Report includes updates on the Congressional Budget Office's increasing projection of the long-term federal budget deficit based on President Bush's FY 2005 budget plans, and how the contention surrounding the budget may affect funding for student financial aid programs and reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The report also includes coverage of a recent meeting of the Texas Joint Interim Committee on Higher Education, which included testimony on the success of the state's "Education-Go Get It" campaign.

Keep up with the latest developments by reading the full report on TG Online at www.tgslc.org/lege_report/index.cfm.

This, That, and the Other...

Most undergraduate education today is career-related, according to data from degree-seeking undergraduates in the 1999-2000 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. Overall, about two-thirds of degree-seeking undergraduates major in career fields, defined as programs designed to impart knowledge and skills within the context of occupation-specific job requirements.

Approximately one-quarter of degree-seeking undergraduates select majors in an academic field, defined as programs designed to impart knowledge and skills that represent the accumulated knowledge base in a particular subject area.

A recent issue brief available online provides a more detailed breakdown on career and academic educational orientations by specific areas of study and institution types. The brief is available on the National Center for Education Statistics website at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/
pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004018.