L. 89–329) was legislation signed into United States law on November 8, 1965, as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society domestic agenda.

It increased federal money given to universities, created scholarships, gave low-interest loans for students, and established a National Teachers Corps.

Some George H. W. Bush advisors supported the switch as a way of saving money and simplifying the program, but the White House ultimately opposed the approach.

The changes included cutting off aid at schools with high default rates, prohibiting the use of commission-based sales agents in recruiting and limiting HEA funding to no more than 85 percent of any for-profit college's revenue.

This statutory provision was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in the face of a constitutional challenge by the ACLU in the case of Students for Sensible Drug Policy v.

[19] The amendments also included a provision [HEA Section 487(a)(23)] requiring universities to make a good faith effort to encourage voter registration of students on their campuses.

There was a section passed by the House that did allow more funds to go to institutions in order to keep them current, and a grace period for colleges asking for more loans was eliminated.

"[24] A budget reconciliation bill signed into law in September 2007 included significant changes to HEA financial aid programs.

[30] Significant controversy surrounded the inclusion of anti-P2P legislation into HEOA of 2008, resulting in a letter from a number of leaders in higher education.

The law defines "estimated net price" as the difference between an institution's average total Price of Attendance (the sum of tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, and other expenses, including personal expenses and transportation for first-time, full-time undergraduate students who receive aid) and the institution's median need- and merit-based grant aid awarded.

Mary Sapp, assistant vice president for planning and institutional research at the University of Miami, served as the panel's chair.

The TRP faced the difficult challenge of creating one tool that could be used by a wide variety of institutions – from small, for-profit career schools to major research universities – while balancing simplicity for users.

As part of its cost-transparency measures, the HEOA of 2008 also requires on the College Navigator Web site a report giving the average institutional net price of attendance for first-time, full-time students who receive financial aid.

This also forms the basis for transparency lists; a report on the College Navigator Web site the institutional net price of attendance for Title IV aid recipients by income categories; and for the U.S. Department of Education to develop multi-year tuition and required-fees calculator for undergraduate programs for the College Navigator Web site.

[33] The 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act also maintained the requirement that universities must make an effort to register students to vote.

It would also repeal two Obama-era programs - "gainful employment" and "borrower defense" - aimed at preventing financial exploitation of undergraduates, as well as bar their readoption.

[37] According to Committee spokesman Michael Woeste, "the reforms within the PROSPER Act are necessary to provide students with a high-quality education and fix a system that has not been serving their needs.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, "The PROSPER Act contains several provisions that would allow for the use of religion to justify otherwise prohibited discrimination that could negatively impact LGBTQ students.

[41] For vocational training, including at accredited for-profit schools, Congress in 1965 established a separate student loan program for education "designed to fit individuals for useful employment in recognized occupations.

"[43][44][41] An Obama administration effort to use student loan and graduate earnings data to clarify the scope of eligibility, particularly at problematic for-profit colleges, is commonly referred to as the "gainful employment rule."

In the spring of 2009, the Obama administration announced that it was considering strengthening various consumer protections in higher education, including establishing guidelines about programs eligible under the gainful employment provision of the HEA.

On the other side of the issue, a group of state attorneys general sought court action to force the implementation the rule after the Trump administration delayed its enforcement.

In August 2018, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos proposed to rescind the gainful employment regulations, a step completed in July 2019.

The administration's 2019 repeal of the gainful employment rule has been challenged by 18 state attorneys general, led by Xavier Becerra of California and the American Federation of Teachers.

The department began the process of re-instituting a gainful employment rule in December 2021, holding a set of negotiating sessions with stakeholders in 2022.

According to a paper by the Legal Services Center at Harvard Law School and commissioned by Senator Elizabeth Warren in September 2020, the Secretary of Education may be able to cancel student loan debt.

[55] On July 14, 2023, President Biden announced he would use the Higher Education Act to relieve $39 billion in student loan debt, which he says is "legally sound" while warning "it's going to take longer".