Five years in the making, the Higher Education Act is finally moving through the House and Senate floors with a vote expected as early as this week. The bill has been up for renewal since 2003, and is intended to expand student lending services and to make higher education more affordable and accessible to students. The bill’s provisions include required annual public disclosures from schools and lenders on loan rates and terms as well as data on total school costs. The bill would also require schools to establish codes of conduct governing relationships with lenders, and would bar lenders from giving schools financial aid funds to get on a preferred lender list. Finally, the bill would authorize year-round Pell grants for low-income students and would require greater disclosure of textbook costs. Also imbedded in the act are a couple controversial provisions. The first was pushed for by the entertainment industry and would force schools to use “technology-based deterrents” to curtail students’ abilities to share copyrighted materials through peer networks. The second stipulates that online institutions must prove that the identities of enrolled students match those who do the work. The latter has led several online institutions to experiment with fingerprinting, web camera recordings, and keystroke recordings to monitor students – practices that have raised concerns among academics and students alike.

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