Northeast Ohio is encouraging stopped-adult learners to re-enroll by promising to erase up to $5,000 in unpaid balances as they progress toward earning their degree. Two years into the experiment, tuition generated by the 500 students who’ve returned approaches $1.6 million—25 times greater than their canceled debt, according to Ithaka S+R, a research nonprofit focused on higher ed accessibility.
The Ohio College Comeback Compact began in the summer of 2022 across eight partnering institutions: Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College, Kent State University, Lakeland Community College, Lorain County Community College, Stark State College, The University of Akron and Youngstown State University. Ithaka scoured institutions’ databases of debt-holding, stopped-out Ohioans and identified those who were at least one year removed from their last enrollment, owed $5,000 or less, and boasted a 2.0 GPA or higher.
Stopped-out learners’ past-due balances often bar them from re-enrolling in higher education. A 2023 rule from the Department of Education effectively banned institutions from withholding transcripts from students wishing to transfer elsewhere, but students are still prohibited from returning to their original institution due to registration holds.
The Ohio College Comeback Compact’s debt cancellation policy helped 95% of eligible students return to their debt-holding institution.
“Students’ path to credential completion is often most efficient when they return to the institution holding most of their credits,” says Brittany Pearce, program manager at Ithaka S+R. “If anything, the new federal rule makes it even more important for institutions to look at their policies, practices and opportunities to re-engage stopped-out students who have debt so that they have a viable path back, rather than a path out.”
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Three students earned a degree during the pilot program, and the percentage of stopped-out adults who decided to re-enroll was nearly triple that of national averages, according to the National Student Clearinghouse’s report on some-college-no-credential students from the year prior. The compact partnered with ReUp Education during the program’s full implementation in 2023-24 to provide early advising to prospective students who are balancing other personal responsibilities.
“Students would say, ‘Yes, I’m interested. I know exactly what I want to do, but what ducks do I need to get in a row now?'” Pearce says. “It’s not just the academic fit and institution that the coaches help students navigate.”
In the program’s first two years, 12% of all enrollees have earned a credential (21 earned their bachelor’s), and its 3.7% re-enrollment rate is more than a full percentage point above the state average, according to Ithaka S+R. Furthermore, more than one-third of Compact-eligible students enrolled this past spring semester have no debt left to cancel.
The initiative is also boosting equitable access to higher education in Northeast Ohio. Of all enrolled students, 61% identified as a person of color, and 69% were Pell Grant recipients in their previous enrollment. Caregivers are also overrepresented in its overall pool of enrollees.
Northeast Ohio’s ability to punch up its number of credentialed adults doesn’t just benefit their institutions’ bottom line. The Ohio Bureau of Labor has called out a growing talent gap in the state: 75% of job growth in Ohio will be in occupations requiring at least a postsecondary non-degree credential between 2018 and 2028. Nationwide, 85% of all “good jobs” are expected to require some postsecondary credential.
