Commission on Higher Education Quality and Affordability (CHEQA)

Background

Section 215 of the Massachusetts Fiscal Year 2025 budget created a Commission on Higher Education Quality and Affordability. The 21-member group of higher education, business, civil rights, and other stakeholders is charged with reviewing, evaluating, and making recommendations on:

• State [higher education] assistance programs and funding, including, but not limited to, aid for tuition, fees, books, supplies and other costs of attendance … to ensure the accessibility and affordability of higher education institutions and how to achieve best outcomes;
• Student costs and debts during and after attending said universities;
• Programs that improve student success, including, but not limited to, academic support, career counselling, assistance with applying for state and federal benefits and improvements to facilities;
• Improvements needed to increase the recruitment and retention of qualified adjunct and full-time faculty and staff; and
• Financial assistance program design and models to efficiently increase state assistance, improve outcomes and reduce student costs

Final Report

The Commission submitted its final report and recommendations to the Massachusetts Legislature on December 9, 2025.

The Commission’s recommendations included:

1. To complement the significant expansion in college access recently implemented through growth in Massachusetts state financial aid for higher education, the Commonwealth should invest further, first and foremost, in funding large scale implementation of effective (based on evidence and ongoing evaluation) student success programs.
2. It is essential for the Commonwealth to codify its financial aid commitment to students, families and institutions of higher education in a manner that establishes clear, consistent multi-year support on which they can rely.
3. The Commonwealth should continue to expand financial aid and other complementary public benefit programs over time for students in two primary directions: first, to support meeting the basic need expenses (e.g. housing, food, child care, and mental as well as physical health care) of low-income students to enable them to take full advantage of tuition and fee-free college access opportunities; and second, to reduce on a sliding scale the burdensome debt that low- and moderate-income families must take on to meet their full cost of attendance.
4. Because recruiting and retaining high-quality staff and faculty is a critical enabler for a high-quality higher education system, the Commonwealth needs to and should pursue a timely comprehensive review of faculty and staff remunerative and non-remunerative structures, policies, and practices complete with recommendations and an implementation plan.
5. To meet these goals and all of higher education’s funding needs, the Commonwealth needs to rely both on sustained general budget appropriations and complementary additional investment from Fair Share funds. The Commonwealth should commit a fixed, meaningful share of annual Fair Share Education and Transportation proceeds to support a range of higher education uses.

Commission Members