UW–Madison’s Nick Hillman, a professor with the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, shared his expertise with Marketplace and ABC News earlier this month.
Hillman is an expert in how finance, policy, and geography shape educational opportunities, and is the director of the university’s Student Success Through Applied Research (SSTAR) Lab.
In a Marketplace report, headlined “Why does college tuition have so many extra fees?” Hillman explains that many universities are pressured to keep tuition low, leaving them to use “fees” as a way to charge students for extra services. The report explains the need for universities to be transparent about their costs in order to best serve and support students who are paying for their education.
ABC News also interviewed Hillman recently for their article, “’A train wreck coming’: Americans brace for the return of student loan payments.”
Hillman states that student loan payments were originally canceled due to the pandemic, but the government can no longer continue to pause these fees now that COVID is no longer a federal emergency. Hillman recommends that students “confirm their servicer and repayment plan,” as “borrowers with ‘smaller’ loans who never completed their degrees face the highest rate of default.”