Title I
Title I of the NDEA serves as an introduction to the content and purposes of the Act.
Title II
Title II authorizes the provision of student loans and provides terms by which they may be awarded. Initially, Title II provided scholarships (also known as grants) rather than loans. However, some members of Congress expressed worry about the message sent by giving students a "free ride." The House version of the bill eliminated scholarship money, while the Senate reduced the amount of scholarship money. By the time the bill was passed into law, student aid was exclusively loan-based.
Title III
Title III provides additional financial assistance for the purposes of strengthening science, math, and foreign language programs. Latin and Greek programs are not funded under this title, on the grounds that they are not modern foreign languages, and thus do not support defense needs.
Title IV
Title IV provides funding for graduate fellowships in order to increase the number of graduate-level professionals and university professors. Priority was given to students who stated an interest in becoming a professor. However, certain fields (such as folklore) were specifically exempted from these fellowships. Title IV was also one of the only two federal programs (along with Title VI of the NDEA) in existence at the time that gave any funding to the humanities.
Title V
Title V includes provisions for the training of guidance counselors and the implementation of testing programs to identify gifted students. This laid the groundwork for Academically Gifted (AG) and Gifted & Talented (GT) programs and began the trend of using standardized testing in schools to measure competency.
Title VI
Title VI provides funding for language and area studies programs. "Area studies" includes such subjects as African American studies and Latin American studies.
Title VII
Title VII provided funding for research in the more effective use of technology for educational purposes.
Title VIII
Title VIII provided funding for vocational training in order to better prepare citizens for the workforce.
Title IX
Title IX established the Science Information Institute and Science Information Council in order to disseminate scientific information and assist the government in matters of a highly technical nature.
Title X
Title X contains miscellaneous provisions regarding legal and pragmatic details of the Act.