Higher Education Politics & Economics (HEPE)

Description: Despite the growing national conversation around student loan debt, there is a notable lack of qualitative research exploring its personal and emotional impacts on borrowers. Most studies focus on quantitative data, such as default rates, repayment trends, and economic effects, overlooking the nuanced experiences and perspectives of individuals grappling with debt. The lived realities of borrowers—how they manage the stress of repayment, navigate complex forgiveness programs, or make life decisions around their debt—remain underexplored. This gap in the literature presents an urgent need for qualitative studies that can provide deeper insights into the psychological, social, and financial burdens of student debt. We call for proposals that prioritize borrower narratives to better inform policy changes and humanize the debt crisis. Number of Inclusions: We are seeking up to eight (8) high-quality qualitative articles for inclusion in the special issue. We welcome submissions that utilize mixed or multiple methods, but the qualitative component must be equally emphasized or more prominent. Our goal is to strengthen the representation of qualitative research in the literature. Timeline: Calls for proposal will occur in October 2024 and will be open until March 31st, 2025. Proposals will be up to 700 words and should include: introduction, short lit review/study purpose, methods, and if applicable initial findings. Proposal decisions are expected to occur in July 2025. For accepted proposals, full papers will be due August 2025 and will be subjected to peer-review. We expect peer-review to last no longer than 60 days (November 2025) and will provide authors another 30 days (December 2025 - January 2026) to make revisions. Once all final revisions are completed the special issue will go to press.

Hey, I am guest-editing an issue on student loans.

RE: collapse of Academic Twitter, we're extending the call for abstracts til March 31st.

If you have #Qualitative work on #studentloans, submit!

Requote and share widely.

#AcademicSky #EduSky #HigherEd

ojed.org/hepe/announc...

*Link works now

Opinion Piece 2: Transgender Athletes and Title IX Compliance
Ryan Creps, Ph.D.
www.ojed.org/hepe/article...

Opinion Piece 1: Does College Guarantee Economic Mobility?
Amy White, Ph.D.
www.ojed.org/hepe/article...

Article 3: Relationship between Public Funding and Student Access: The Case of Two Public Universities in Africa
Fredua Kwasi-Agyeman, Ph.D. & Casimir Adjoe, Ph.D.
www.ojed.org/hepe/article...

Article 2: The Equity Effects of the State Funding of Higher Education and Lottery-Funded Scholarships
Mary Borg, Ph.D.
www.ojed.org/hepe/article...

Article 1: Random-Track: The End of the Academic Career as We Know it?
Asl Vatansever, Ph.D.
www.ojed.org/hepe/article...

Check out our latest edition of Higher Education Politics & Economics! Our 11(1) edition features 3 articles and 2 opinion pieces.

Boosting!

Check out our latest issue (January 2024)! www.ojed.org/index.php/hepe
Full issue downloadable here: www.ojed.org/index.php/he...

We are looking for peer reviewers to help with submissions. If you are interested in current trends and impacts and politics and economic policy on higher education, we encourage you to submit your information by clicking on Register, then choosing yes to be contacted @hiedsky @econsky @polisky

Check out our latest issue (July 2023)! www.ojed.org/index.php/he...

HEPE is an academic, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal on higher education feat. research from ed. finance, poli sci, social sci, policy, & law to critically examine dynamics in the nexus of social, political, and economic forces shaping major changes in higher education in the US & the world

Hello #HigherEd @edusky.bsky.social @academic-chatter.bsky.social #academicsky #psychscisky @academiclife.bsky.social #econsky #polisky #hiedsky. Consider us for a future publication!