Are Big For-Profit Colleges Dying?

[sanantone]

While not big, Patten University was a non-profit, brick and mortar college that was bought out by the for-profit UniversityNow. First, Patten's brick and mortar campus was closed. Now, Patten is entirely going away. UniversityNow also sold New Charter University. A non-profit company bought UniversityNow's online platform. 

University of Phoenix has been losing students by the hundreds of thousands. Its parent company, Apollo Group, is selling itself. They also shut down their other school, Western International University. 

Argosy University is closing campuses including one that used to be a non-profit university Argosy bought out. 

ITT Tech shut down after the federal government took away their Title IV eligibility. They owned another university that used to be a non-profit college, and that was also shut down. 

Ashford University is a formerly non-profit university that has had a string of problems. They almost lost accreditation with the HLC because, after they were bought out by Bridgepoint, they moved most of their operations to California. HLC started cracking down on for-profit companies "buying accreditation" by taking over non-profit schools and drastically changing them. Ashford eventually earned WASC accreditation, but they shut down their brick and mortar campus in Iowa. Now, Ashford is being sued by California for ripping off students, and Ashford is trying to convert to a non-profit. 

http://www.latimes.com/local/education/l...story.html

Everest Institutes and Colleges were well-known for their trashy commercials that aired during daytime talk shows. Due to having terrible job placement rates and having campuses shut down by the Canadian government, their parent company, Corinthian, shut down most of the campuses. The remaining campuses were bought by a non-profit company, and the schools are now called Altierus Career College. 

Several years ago, Keiser University converted to non-profit status after the previous administration started cracking down on for-profit colleges. 

Grand Canyon University recently converted back into a non-profit college because it's more in line with their mission as a Christian university.

Purdue recently bought out Kaplan University. 

In the end, I think these large for-profits might survive. 

1. Walden - They offer doctoral programs that are hard to find elsewhere, and I don't think any of their programs have competitive admissions.

2. Capella - They also offer doctoral programs that are hard to find elsewhere. Their licensure master's programs are very popular, and I don't think they have competitive admissions for any of them. 

3. American Public University System - They're cheaper than most of the regionally accredited options out there, especially if your only options are private universities and out-of-state public schools. Military and public safety workers also like the "American Military University" title, and admission is non-competitive. I don't think any of their master's programs require a graduate admissions test, and most of them don't require letters of recommendation. 

4. South University - They're different in that they offer many clinical programs on campus (i.e. physician assistant, occupational therapy, anesthesiologist assistant, etc.). They might survive because these programs are designed to be flexible for adult learners.

---

Oh, Argosy was also purchased by a non-profit organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argosy_University

[MNomadic]

I found it very amusing how GCU achieved non profit status. They created a non profit by the same name, then sold most the the assets to the newly formed non profit(themselves) and now the non profit hires Grand canyon education(the former owners and still for profit company) to handle financial aid, marketing, etc. So they really just pulled some loop holes to achieve their "non-profit" status in name only. But don't worry, they're a Christian university.(that was formerly sued by the government for violation of enrollment and financial aid rules).

[jsd]

Hopefully!

[MNomadic]

And the same guy is president of the non profit Grand canyon university and CEO of the for profit Grand canyon education which has a 15 year contract to only work with GCU.

[Marcus Aurelius]

People have more options these days. The days of University of Phoenix being the big dog of online learning are over. Most state schools now offer a variety of online degree completion programs.

[cookderosa]

I think for-profits have an image problem that *while real or imagined* can probably be solved by adopting a sustainable non-profit model.

[eLearner]

I think the media has done a good job of demonizing for-profit colleges. First they tried to demonize online learning altogether, that failed, and then they moved into phase two, attacking for-profits. Your tax status doesn't automatically mean you're a good school or bad school since both for-profits and non-profits have their share of good and bad. Ashford University, for example, could switch to any status it wants, it will still be a crummy operation.

Unfortunately, the public is mostly brain-dead and can't think for themselves, so whatever mass media tells them is what they go with. "For-profits are bad, run!" Then they go to a non-profit, get a substandard education and a wild debt and wonder what the hell just happened?

[dfrecore]

Unfortunately, the public is mostly brain-dead and can't think for themselves, so whatever mass media tells them is what they go with. "For-profits are bad, run!" Then they go to a non-profit, get a substandard education and a wild debt and wonder what the hell just happened?

More people have more debt from for-profits than non-profits.  So getting rid of for-profits altogether probably wouldn't be a bad thing, at least in that respect.

[alexf.1990]

More people have more debt from for-profits than non-profits.  So getting rid of for-profits altogether probably wouldn't be a bad thing, at least in that respect.

The difference between for-profit and non-profit really just comes down to business structure. MNomadic gave a good example above of a for-profit transforming itself into a non-profit without substantially changing its operations. Banning for-profit schools would just force for-profits to switch corporate structures.

[sanantone]

I think the media has done a good job of demonizing for-profit colleges. First they tried to demonize online learning altogether, that failed, and then they moved into phase two, attacking for-profits. Your tax status doesn't automatically mean you're a good school or bad school since both for-profits and non-profits have their share of good and bad. Ashford University, for example, could switch to any status it wants, it will still be a crummy operation.

Unfortunately, the public is mostly brain-dead and can't think for themselves, so whatever mass media tells them is what they go with. "For-profits are bad, run!" Then they go to a non-profit, get a substandard education and a wild debt and wonder what the hell just happened?

The media doesn't need to do anything. The stats speak for themselves. When 2-year for-profits are compared to community colleges (these two types of colleges have similar student bodies), for-profit graduates have worse employment outcomes. It just doesn't make sense to spend more for a worse outcome. It doesn't even make sense to spend more for the same outcome.