Charter Oak struggles as well, not just Excelsior

[Lewis.Yim]

I was on the forum reading a previous post about Excelsior and thought about Charter oak as well, seems they have similar struggles.

Have a read here, last year: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017...ate-system

And their update last week: https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-l...e-learning

I feel many other colleges/universities are having "issues" and some closing B&M campuses to focus solely on their online offerings - like Ashford, others are being bought out (Apollo Education Group), some large players being shut down (ITT Tech), and so on. 

No school is immune to changes in the environmental landscape of education, so for me, I look at what's accredited, affordable, attainable, such as going for TESU undergrad and WGU graduate degrees in Business/Management.

[sanantone]

ITT Tech didn't shut down because it was struggling. They shut down because the federal government disqualified it from receiving financial aid after they were found to be scamming students.

Ashford University was bought out many years ago by a for-profit company. Once it was bought out, the campus was never a focus. The marketing was almost entirely directed toward online students. Ashford also had accreditation issues because it was based in Iowa, but most of their operations were in California. HLC saw this as a problem and threatened to pull their accreditation, so Ashford moved its headquarters to California to be accredited by WASC. Therefore, their Iowa campus became even less of a focus.

The Apollo Group was bought out because University of Phoenix has been losing students for years to non-for-profit colleges. Most of them are cheaper than UoP; some of them are around the same price or more, but they have better name brands. UoP has lost a few lawsuits and was temporarily banned from recruiting on military bases because they were trying to recruit veterans with brain damage.

There is a lot of competition in online education now. You either need to be cheap or have a good name brand. Like I said in the other thread, why would someone pay $510 per credit hour at Excelsior when they could pay a similar price at University of Florida? Why would someone pay $510 per credit hour at Excelsior when they could pay $3500 per six months at a competency-based school?

[Life Long Learning]

ITT Tech didn't shut down because it was struggling. They shut down because the federal government disqualified it from receiving financial aid after they were found to be scamming students.  

Ashford University was bought out many years ago by a for-profit company. Once it was bought out, the campus was never a focus. The marketing was almost entirely directed toward online students. Ashford also had accreditation issues because it was based in Iowa, but most of their operations were in California. HLC saw this as a problem and threatened to pull their accreditation, so Ashford moved its headquarters to California to be accredited by WASC. Therefore, their Iowa campus became even less of a focus.

The Apollo Group was bought out because University of Phoenix has been losing students for years to non-for-profit colleges. Most of them are cheaper than UoP; some of them are around the same price or more, but they have better name brands. UoP has lost a few lawsuits and was temporarily banned from recruiting on military bases because they were trying to recruit veterans with brain damage.

There is a lot of competition in online education now. You either need to be cheap or have a good name brand. Like I said in the other thread, why would someone pay $510 per credit hour at Excelsior when they could pay a similar price at University of Florida? Why would someone pay $510 per credit hour at Excelsior when they could pay $3500 per six months at a competency-based school?

Excelsior College needs to get back to their roots.  I would pay and did pay $510/credit if I can transfer in 116 credits.  That is the Big 3 Advantage over everyone!

[sanantone]

ITT Tech didn't shut down because it was struggling. They shut down because the federal government disqualified it from receiving financial aid after they were found to be scamming students.  

Ashford University was bought out many years ago by a for-profit company. Once it was bought out, the campus was never a focus. The marketing was almost entirely directed toward online students. Ashford also had accreditation issues because it was based in Iowa, but most of their operations were in California. HLC saw this as a problem and threatened to pull their accreditation, so Ashford moved its headquarters to California to be accredited by WASC. Therefore, their Iowa campus became even less of a focus.

The Apollo Group was bought out because University of Phoenix has been losing students for years to non-for-profit colleges. Most of them are cheaper than UoP; some of them are around the same price or more, but they have better name brands. UoP has lost a few lawsuits and was temporarily banned from recruiting on military bases because they were trying to recruit veterans with brain damage.

There is a lot of competition in online education now. You either need to be cheap or have a good name brand. Like I said in the other thread, why would someone pay $510 per credit hour at Excelsior when they could pay a similar price at University of Florida? Why would someone pay $510 per credit hour at Excelsior when they could pay $3500 per six months at a competency-based school?

Excelsior College needs to get back to their roots.  I would pay and did pay $510/credit if I can transfer in 116 credits.  That is the Big 3 Advantage over everyone!

Apparently, their main source of income was their nursing program. Excelsior's roots were as a public college, but they no longer have the tax dollars to support them. It's hard to make money when you let people transfer in 116+ credits. 

It appears that higher education in Connecticut, as a whole, is doing poorly. COSC never had many students, and Connecticut is a small state. I think COSC created more majors to attract more students, but they aren't, and creating new degree programs costs money. Being in such a small state, they need to do more to attract students from other states.

[Exfactor]

Wasn't their a thread on here a year ago created by TESU alumni going over the lack of revenue the school was bringing in?

[sanantone]

Wasn't their a thread on here a year ago created by TESU alumni going over the lack of revenue the school was bringing in?

Yes, the state made up the deficit, which is common with public schools. In the 2015-2016 school year, the school lost money because of increased pension expenses and a reduction in fees (TESU started letting people meet the residency requirement with TECEPs and PLAs instead of requiring a $3,000 enrollment fee). COSC's deficit seems to be so large that it's becoming a problem, and the State of Connecticut is considering merging colleges. That may or may not happen. TESU, on the other hand, is adding doctoral and masters programs and expanding its nursing program, and the State of New Jersey decided against merging TESU with Rutgers.

[jsd]

Merge with Rutgers and send me an updated diploma, please

[sanantone]

Merge with Rutgers and send me an updated diploma, please

Sorry. We missed out on that.

I think part of the reason for wanting to do this was to make it easy for Rutgers to build an online division. They would have instantly gotten 17,000 online students.

[Old Guy]

Up to about 20 years ago, Excelsior offered no courses, just a number of exams, half in nursing. I think the big three have went astray trying to generate revenue to build empires. Their purpose was to aggregate miscellaneous credits into a reasonable facsimile of a degree. Now they want to be real schools.

[Life Long Learning]

Up to about 20 years ago, Excelsior offered no courses, just a number of exams, half in nursing.  I think the big three have went astray trying to generate revenue to build empires.  Their purpose was to aggregate miscellaneous credits into a reasonable facsimile of a degree.  Now they want to be real schools.

Old Guy

I also think they have had too much mission creep and wish they would stay different (aka the Big 3).