Grants to USA institutions of higher education to build capacity and become self-sufficient in serving low-income students. Funding is intended to strengthen and improve the academic quality, fiscal stability, and institutional management of post-secondary educational institutions.

Grants may be used for planning, faculty development, and establishing endowment funds. Administrative management and the development and improvement of academic programs are also supported. Other projects include joint use of instructional facilities, construction and maintenance, and student service programs designed to improve academic success, including innovative, customized, instruction courses designed to help retain students and move the students rapidly into core courses and through program completion, which may include remedial education and English language instruction.

Program priorities:

• Competitive Preference Priority 1—Tutoring, Counseling, and Student Service Programs: 
• The SIP Program is critical to the Department's efforts to improve college completion for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in postsecondary education. In recent years, attention to the importance of other supports, such as mental health, food pantries, and childcare, among others, to student persistence and graduation rates has increased. Through this priority, IHEs are encouraged to develop and/or create internal support systems and/or train personnel on ways to enhance and/or develop systems of support that provide wrap-around services to students and promote retention. These services can be provided to newly admitted students or to existing students at the institution.
• Priority: Projects designed to provide tutoring, counseling, and student service programs designed to improve academic success, including innovative, customized, instruction courses designed to help retain students and move the students rapidly into core courses and through program completion, which may include remedial education and English language instruction.
• Competitive Preference Priority 2—Fostering Flexible and Affordable Paths to Obtaining Knowledge and Skills:
• One of the top expectations of students who attend post-secondary education is that they will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to get a job. Institutions are encouraged to provide their students employability-related experiences.
• Priority: Projects designed to provide work-based learning experiences (such as internships, apprenticeships, and fellowships) that align with in-demand industry sectors or occupations (as defined in section 3(23) of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (WIOA)).