ABSTRACT
Higher education is faced with spiraling costs coupled with great pressure to resist using price increases to balance the budget. Colleges and universities are unable to maintain sufficient revenue to sustain their programs as currently organized. Banking functions become a strategic necessity for colleges and universities as they face uncertainty over the future of federal and state financial aid, and as families try to maximize their available resources through saving and creative financing. Banking functions may provide an option for educational institutions with attributes that current commercial innovations are not prepared to meet. In many ways, higher education institutions already perform bank-like functions. Families are struggling to find a safe and structured way to save for college, while at the same time anticipating the need to borrow to meet the balance of their costs once their children matriculate. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
