Untangling the Knot: How Students and Institutions Navigate the Complexities of Community College Financial Aid
Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Overview
The California Community Colleges system is the largest broad access higher education system in the nation, serving more than 1.8 million students across 116 campuses. Yet, many Californians still face systemic barriers that discourage or prevent them from enrolling, with financial aid presenting one of the greatest challenges. From the complexity of applications to concerns about the total cost of attendance and potential loan debt, the system can be difficult to navigate—especially for low-income, first-generation, and historically marginalized students.
Building a more accessible and equitable financial aid system has the power to reshape how Californians view higher education, expand enrollment, and boost representation among underserved communities. Researchers from the California Education Lab and Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research have identified key opportunities to make progress toward these outcomes.
Join the UC Davis School of Education for a webinar where these experts will shed more light on the current state of financial aid in California Community Colleges. Presenters will draw on surveys of high school seniors, interviews with current college students, and quantitative analysis of administrative data to offer insights that policymakers, community college leaders, and student aid advisors can leverage in their efforts to increase higher education access and strengthen degree attainment.
This virtual event is free and open to the public. Registration is required to access the Zoom webinar.
Speakers
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Wheelhouse Executive Director |
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Professor in Education Policy and California Education Lab Faculty Affiliate |
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California Education Lab Director of Research Partnerships |
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Dr. Elizabeth Zeiger Friedmann Wheelhouse Research Fellow |
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Ph.D. candidate and California Education Lab graduate student researcher |
About the Centers
The California Education Lab is a collaborative group of researchers investigating education policy and practice. Their work focuses on understanding how young adults prepare for, transition into, and succeed in college. Projects are explicitly aimed at understanding and improving persistent inequalities in educational attainment for students from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research supports current and future leaders in the California Community Colleges system. They achieve this outcome by delivering professional and peer learning to district chancellors and college presidents; and conducting, translating, and disseminating third-party research to inform practice and policy development for community college leaders and state and local policymakers.