Federal Student Aid, an office of the U.S. Department of Education, ensures that all eligible individuals can benefit from federally funded financial assistance for education beyond high school. We consistently champion the promise of postsecondary education to all Americans and its importance to our society.

Federal Student Aid plays a central and essential role in supporting postsecondary education by providing money for college to eligible students and families. We partner with postsecondary schools, financial institutions and others to deliver services that help students and families who are paying for college.

Federal Student Aid performs a range of critical functions that include, among others:

Processing millions of student financial aid applications each year;

Disbursing billions of dollars in aid funds to students through schools;

Enforcing financial aid rules and regulations;

Servicing millions of student loan accounts, and securing repayment from borrowers who have defaulted on their loans; and operating information technology systems and tools that manage billions in student aid dollars.

This is a complex, multifaceted mission that calls on a range of staff skills and demands coordination by all levels of management. Consequently, Federal Student Aid, a Performance-Based Organization (PBO), emphasizes tangible results and efficient performance, as well as the continuous improvement of the processes and systems that support our mission.

Title IV Programs

The federal student aid programs are authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, as amended. They include federal grants, loans and work-study programs. Find a brief description of each of these federal financial aid programs here.

Federal Student Aid Performance

As a federally designated PBO, Federal Student Aid operates under a congressional mandate to achieve concrete results while improving performance. Since Federal Student Aid became a PBO in 1998, we have introduced many substantial and measurable improvements in how we plan and report our operational and portfolio performance in administering the federal student financial assistance programs. Learn more about Federal Student Aid's strategic planning, performance and reporting here.