Robert Kelchen is a professor of higher education and head of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research interests include higher education finance, accountability policies, and student financial aid. Kelchen is the author of Higher Education Accountability (Johns Hopkins University Press) and regularly publishes in top education journals. He has received the Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award for excellence in financial aid research from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and has been recognized as one of the 25 most influential faculty members in education by Education Week.