Accountability, Affordability, Access: A Review of the Recent Trends in Higher Education Policy Research

The following research note surveys the most recent literature published in the past two years on higher education policy and politics in the United States. We identify three prominent themes in the literature including research on accountability, affordability, and issues concerning access and equity. We observe that there has been increased attention paid to theories of politics by those who study higher education, which has played a vital role in pushing the boundaries of education research to help begin answering many of the field's most complex and multi-dimensional questions. This theoretical development has allowed education policy scholars to better understand why various policies are adopted, how they change over time, which groups benefit, and how institutions are affected by changes in the economic and political landscape.