Access to Student Loans and Pell Grants: Institutional Accountability Has Arrived in Higher Ed

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Preston Cooper, Senior Fellow at American Enterprise Institute; Dan Greenstein, Senior Vice President and Chief of Industry Transformation at Ellucian; Anne M. Kress, President at Northern Virginia Community College; Barbara Mistick, President at NAICU; and Phil Hill, Publisher of the On EdTech Newsletter at PH&A.Federal higher education policy was shifting in unprecedented ways under OB3 (“Big Beautiful Bill”). Institutional Accountability represented the primary change affecting the majority of institutions participating in Federal Student Loan and Pell Grant programs—something entirely new in U.S. higher education. Other OB3 provisions, most notably new loan limits and the introduction of Workforce Pell, compounded the impacts of these changes. This session examined how higher education had entered a new era and why education leaders needed to prepare for both the opportunities and the risks.The discussion outlined what was changing, what was not, and how these policy adjustments affected institutional program portfolios, enrollment planning, and financial exposure. Panelists explored the implications of expanded workforce funding alongside tighter graduate lending, with a focus on practical considerations for institutional leaders.