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New Report Suggests New GI Bill Will Lead to More Full-time, Full-year Enrollments and Greater Attendance at Public Four-year Institutions

Aug. 27, 2009

A new report suggests that future military undergraduates (defined as veterans and military service members on active duty or in the reserves who are pursuing undergraduate education) may be more likely to enroll full-time for the full academic year and may be more likely to matriculate at four-year public institutions than past military undergraduates.

Military Service Members and Veterans in Higher Education: What the New GI Bill May Mean for Postsecondary Institutions, released today by the American Council on Education (ACE), draws on numerous data sources to help higher education administrators understand and anticipate the enrollment choices of returning veterans and military personnel and the services needed to accommodate these students under the new GI Bill. The report, authored by Alexandria Walton Radford of MPR Associates, Inc., is part of ACE's Serving Those Who Serve initiative and was produced with support from Lumina Foundation for Education.

In addition to describing the recent participation and experiences in higher education of U.S. military service members and veterans, the report also summarizes earlier GI Bills and compares them with the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act and provides a list of questions for campus administrators to consider as they prepare to welcome an influx of service members and veterans this year.

"Veterans and service members who are eligible for the new GI Bill will receive more generous benefits that will broaden the choices they have when pursuing higher education," said Radford. "While these students have previously been concentrated at public two-year colleges, these new benefits may encourage them to seek entry into more expensive colleges, particularly if those institutions demonstrate responsiveness to their needs."

"ACE is focused on helping institutions prepare to better serve veterans and members of the military," said ACE President Molly Corbett Broad. "These students will now have more choices than they did before the new GI Bill was implemented. Campuses in all sectors need to be ready to welcome these students and be committed to their success."

Other major findings of the report include:

• In 2007-08, military undergraduates represented 4 percent of all undergraduates enrolled in postsecondary education.
• In 2007-08, only half of all military undergraduates at public four-year colleges and only one-third of all military undergraduates at other types of institutions received veterans' education benefits. Military undergraduates who received veterans' education benefits were about 9 percentage points more likely to attend a four-year public college than military undergraduates who did not receive these benefits.
• About 23 percent of all military undergraduates in 2007-08 attended full-time for the full year, but military undergraduates who received veterans education benefits were about 15 percentage points more likely to do so than those who did not receive benefits.
• Location was an important factor to 75 percent of military undergraduates in choosing a postsecondary institution in 2003-04. About half reported that program/coursework or costs were important.
• Forty-three percent of military undergraduates in 2007-08 attended public two-year institutions. Twenty-one percent attended public four-year colleges. Private for-profit and private not-for-profit four-year institutions each enrolled about one-eighth of all military undergraduates.
• Military undergraduates' demographic and enrollment characteristics were often similar to those of other older, financially independent undergraduates, though military undergraduates were noticeably less likely to be female.

Military Service Members and Veterans in Higher Education: What the New GI Bill May Mean for Postsecondary Institutions can be downloaded as a PDF from the ACE web site.

ACE's Serving Those Who Serve initiative is a broad-based initiative designed to promote access to and success in higher education for more than 2 million service members and their families who are eligible for newly expanded benefits under the new GI Bill. Resources available include information on campus best practices, a Q&A document on provisions of the new GI Bill, and an issue brief on the challenges veterans face when transitioning to campus.

The most recent publication from Serving Those Who Serve, From Soldier to Student: Easing the Transition of Service Members on Campus, offers a first-of-its-kind national snapshot of the programs, services and policies in place on campuses to serve veterans and military personnel, as well as areas in which campuses need to improve their offerings. The report, produced by ACE and four partner organizations, is available as a complimentary PDF. Hard copies also are available from the ACE Bookstore.