Order Code RS21653
Updated April 5, 2005
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary
Education: Background and Funding
Bonnie F. Mangan
Information Research Specialist
Knowledge Services Group
Summary
The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) supports
projects to encourage innovative reform and expand education opportunities to
underrepresented groups. This report describes the historical context leading to the
establishment of the Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education, provisions
governing the program, and the variety of projects funded by FIPSE. As part of the
Higher Education Act, FIPSE is up for reauthorization in the 109th Congress. H.R. 507,
the College Access and Opportunity Act of 2005, contains provisions reauthorizing
FIPSE.1 This report will be updated to reflect major legislative action on FIPSE
reauthorization.
Since its inception over 30 years ago, the Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) has funded projects to encourage innovative reform and
expand educational opportunities to underrepresented groups. Through grants under this
program, institutions of higher education (IHEs) have developed programs to improve
teaching and curriculum. FIPSE was created by the Education Amendments of 1972 (P.L.
92-318) as an amendment to the Higher Education Act (HEA).2
Background
With the passage of the 1972 Amendments to the HEA, the debate over assistance
to students versus institutional aid for funding higher education was settled in favor of aid
to students in the form of Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (BEOG). FIPSE, a small
program to improve postsecondary education, was a remnant of earlier proposals for a
foundation to support innovation in education. In 1967 the Carnegie Foundation
Commission on Higher Education’s Quality and Equality: New Levels of Federal
1 See CRS Issue Brief IB10097, The Higher Education Act: Reauthorization Status and Issues,
by Adam Stoll.
2 P.L. 92-318, Title III, § 404.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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Responsibility for Higher Education proposed an independent federal agency, a national
foundation, to encourage experimental development in higher education. A 1971 report
by the Newman Task Force, Report on Higher Education, also favored federal actions to
support innovation in higher education.3
College enrollments greatly increased in the decade leading up to passage of the
Education Amendments of 1972. This was attributable to several factors including the
baby boom generation reaching college age, the civil rights movement, and the expanded
student aid provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (P.L. 89-329).4 As the college
student population became increasingly diverse, issues of access and affordability grew.
FIPSE was created in part to help revitalize a traditional and less inclusive higher
education system.
FIPSE Provisions and Projects Funded
As authorized by the HEA, FIPSE supports innovative projects to achieve a variety
of purposes. These include efforts to:
! encourage the reform and improvement of postsecondary education and
provide equal educational opportunity for all;
! create institutions and programs offering new paths to career and
professional training and new combinations of academic and
experimental learning;
! establish institutions and programs based on communications technology;
! carry out changes in the internal structure and operations in
postsecondary educational institutions to clarify priorities and purposes;
! design and introduce cost-effective methods of instruction and operation;
! introduce institutional reforms to expand opportunities for individuals to
enter and reenter institutions of higher education and pursue programs of
study tailored to their needs;
! introduce reforms in graduate education, in the structure of academic
professions, and the recruitment and retention of faculties; and
! create new institutions and programs for examining skills and awarding
credentials and reform current institutional practices relating to
credentialing.5
A National Board composed of 15 members and a Director appointed by the
Secretary of Education serve in an advisory capacity to the Secretary. Members serve for
overlapping three-year terms and represent public interest groups, including students and
the education field. Those from education constitute a minority of the Board. Selection
3 For background on the 1972 Amendments to HEA and proposals for an innovation entity in
higher education, see Lawrence E. Gladieux and Thomas R. Wolanin, Congress and the
Colleges: the National Politics of Higher Education (Lexington, MA: Heath and Co., 1976), pp.
50-54.
4 Virginia B. Smith et al., Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education: The Early
Years (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2002), p. 1.
5 20 U.S.C. § 1138.

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to the Board is based on an individual’s ability “to contribute an important perspective on
priorities for improvement in postsecondary education and strategies of educational and
institutional change.” The Board advises the Secretary on the preparation of grant
competitions and the means of evaluating, disseminating, and adapting demonstrated
improvements in postsecondary education.6
To achieve the goals set forth in its legislation, FIPSE awards grants that support
“exemplary, locally developed projects that are models for innovative reform and
improvement in postsecondary education.”7 The FIPSE National Board along with the
Secretary establish funding competitions, priorities, and procedures for granting awards.
Because FIPSE defines higher education broadly, applicants for its discretionary grants
and contracts include not only IHEs but a variety of public and private nonprofit
institutions and agencies offering education after high school. These can include, among
others technical and business schools, testing agencies, professional associations, cultural
institutions, and student groups.8 Awards are typically three years in duration but some
may be five-year grants.
FIPSE supports projects that define a widely felt need in higher education, present
a strategy for meeting the need, and also demonstrate the ability to implement the strategy.
Seed money from FIPSE promotes innovative educational reforms for specific local
problems identified by the grant applicants. Funded projects should have the potential for
greater dissemination and wider influence. Currently, the discretionary grant programs
supported by FIPSE include:
! Comprehensive Program — Most awards are made through this
program and focus on projects that improve practices in higher
education. Each year FIPSE announces invitational priorities in the
Federal Register for those areas of reform and improvement that the
Administration, working with the educational community and FIPSE
staff, have determined to be most critical. Applicants must submit a
preapplication to be eligible to submit a final application. The
competitions generate numerous applications and, on average, 1 in 30
receives funding, making FIPSE one of the most competitive federal
grant programs.9
! International Consortia Programs — These programs include the
U.S./European Community Program, the North American Mobility
Program (United States, Mexico, and Canada), and the U.S./Brazil
Program. Funding supports educational consortia of institutions from the
6 20 U.S.C. § 1138a.
7 U.S. Department of Education, Fiscal Year 2004 Justifications of Appropriation Estimates to
the Congress, vol. II (2003), p. R-42. (Hereafter cited as ED, FY2004 Justifications.)
8 Operating Principles of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, Fiscal Year
2002. Available at [http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/fipse/princp.html?exp=0].
9 U.S. Department of Education, Fiscal Year 2001 Justifications of Appropriation Estimates to
the Congress, vol. II (2000), p. S-64.

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different countries to promote mutual understanding, and increase
educational opportunities, and student and faculty exchanges.10
In 2002, FIPSE priorities were revised to reflect the Administration’s priorities in
higher education. While applicants may propose any project within the scope of the
authorizing statute (20 U.S. C. § 1138), the invitational priorities of particular interest to
the Administration include:
! improving the quality of K-12 teaching through improved teacher
preparation;
! promoting reform in curriculum and instruction from college preparation
through graduate levels using student-centered or technology-mediated
strategies;
! designing cost-effective methods of improving postsecondary instruction
and operations; and
! supporting ways of ensuring equal access to postsecondary education and
improving rates of retention and program completion especially for
underrepresented students.11
Funding History
Over time, annual appropriations for FIPSE have been significantly increased by
congressionally directed funding for specific projects added during the appropriation
process. In FY2005, FIPSE received 418 congressionally directed, noncompetitive grants
totaling $145.2 million. Competitive grants received $17.4 million. This funding went
to support continuing multi-year grants. Consequently FIPSE cancelled its FY2005
competitive grant process.12 Table 1 shows Presidential requests and final total
appropriations for FIPSE from FY2001 through FY2006, distinguishing FIPSE-specific
funding from congressionally directed funding.
10 ED, FY2004 Justifications, p. R-42.
11 U.S. Department of Education, “Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education-
Comprehensive Program (Preapplications and Applications); Notice Inviting Applications for
New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003,” 67 Federal Register 79066 (Dec. 27, 2002). These
same priorities were listed in the “Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year
(FY) 2005,” 69 Federal Register 176 (Sept. 13, 2004).
12 As per telephone conversation with Levenia Ishmell at FIPSE, Mar. 8, 2005.

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Table 1. FIPSE Funding, 2001-2006; Including FIPSE-Specific
Funding and Congressionally Directed Awards
Fiscal
Presidential
FIPSE-specific
Congressionally
Total
year
request
funding
directed
appropriations
2001
$31,200,000
$31,187,000
$115,500,000
$146,687,000
2002
$51,200,000
$31,222,000
$149,700,000
$180,922,000
2003
$39,138,000
$31,968,000
$139,100,000
$171,068,000
2004
$39,138,000
$32,000,000
$125,700,000
$157,700,000
2005
$32,000,000
$17,400,000
$145,200,000
$162,604,000
2006
$22,211,000
to be determined
to be determined
to be determined
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Fiscal Year 2006 Justifications of
Appropriation Estimates to the Congress, vol. II (2005), p. S-60.
Legislative Action in the 109th Congress
This section describes congressional action relating to FIPSE as part of the overall
reauthorization of the HEA.
H.R. 507 (Representative Boehner)
The College Access and Opportunity Act of 2005 includes provisions to amend and
extend FIPSE through FY2011. Funding authorization is set at $40 million for FY2006
and such sums as may be necessary for each of the five succeeding fiscal years. With
respect to FIPSE, the legislation newly seeks to improve postsecondary education by
assuring educational opportunity for the “nontraditional student population,” and by the
promotion of distance learning. Under areas of national need, the legislation adds two
programs: support for the teaching of traditional American history, and activities that
enable IHEs to work with civic and private organizations to help communities address
severe problems relating to economic development, infrastructure, and crime prevention.

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