Higher Education Student Debt & Tuition Costs

U.S. higher education tuition costs have risen at nearly double the rate of inflation over the past forty years. In 2012, student loan delinquency rose to 12% and surpassed credit card delinquency rates as the top category of consumer debt delinquency. Meanwhile, recently enacted federal policies advocate for increased higher education accessibility, affordability and attainability, but simultaneously promote educational institutions to increase spending with funds fueled by student debt. The growth of $136.8 billion in student loan delinquency has triggered decreasing participation in non-student debt markets by people with student loan debt. Fortunately, Americans continue to enroll in colleges at record rates, but the debt burden has become overly taxing on many students because the U.S. household income levels have remained stagnant or declined in recent years. Investing in higher education is still a wise economic decision even with increased higher education tuition rates, college graduate debt levels, and stagnant median U.S. household wages. The fundamental educational expenses associated with teaching students have not increased significantly beyond inflation over the past twenty years, yet a market failure has emerged with unrestricted institutional spending, record high student debt levels and ever-increasing tuition rates. Moving forward, federal higher education policies need to promote environments where individual university officials and state governments are encouraged to mutually work toward a common goal of long-term fiscal responsibility and educational opportunity

Effect of an electric field on an intermittent granular flow

Granular gravity driven flows of glass beads have been observed in a silo with a flat bottom. A DC high electric field has been applied perpendicularly to the silo to tune the cohesion. The outlet mass flow has been measured. An image subtraction technique has been applied to visualize the flow geometry and a spatiotemporal analysis of the flow dynamics has been performed. The outlet mass flow is independent of voltage, but a transition from funnel flow to rathole flow is observed. This transition is of probabilistic nature and an intermediate situation exists between the funnel and the rathole situations. At a given voltage, two kinds of flow dynamics can occur : a continuous flow or an intermittent flow. The electric field increases the probability to observe an intermittent flow.Comment: Accepted for publication in PRE on Apr 9, 201