Ashford University acquired by University of Arizona to become their new global campu

[MNomadic]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020...university

[SweetSecret]

You beat me to it! Too bad we could not have bought it for $1!

I am curious how this will play out with accreditation. Does anyone know how Purdue purchasing Kaplan and turning it into Purdue Global changed the accreditation? Specifically I'm wondering about their business accreditation.

It would be really nice if they added concentrations.

[nomaduser]

They already have a Global Campus website!
https://everywhere.arizona.edu/

[bjcheung77]

The good thing is, they're changing Ashford to a non-profit in this process, and it's really not $1... that's close to or roughly 40 million.

"The University of Arizona Global Campus will acquire Ashford for $1 but will share 19.5 percent of its tuition revenue with Zovio -- a similar arrangement to the deal between Purdue University and Kaplan University that resulted in the formation of Purdue University Global.

Global Campus is guaranteed $225 million in revenue over 15 years and will be reimbursed for operating costs. A $37.5 million upfront payment from Zovio is included in that figure, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal." (From the first link above)

[Merlin]

University of Arizona Global does not appear to be going with a competency-based model. Rather, these will be traditional courses that run 8 weeks (technically 7.5 weeks). There will be two terms per year with an expected course load of 5 courses per term. They will also offer six start dates per year.

Given the 8-week course format and 6-month terms, it seems reasonable that someone could complete more than 5 courses per term. so I don't know if that is an average or requirement. They are listing $15,000 tuition per year ($7,500 per term / $1,500 per course) so I'm not sure if that suggests that tuition will be $1,500 per class or $7,500 per term.

They also indicate that scholarships will be available of up to $9,000 per year which will bring down the annual tuition to $6,000 per year.

Another interesting aspect of the UofA Global program is that they appear to offer the choice of online or on-campus options (at UofA or at Microcampuses in other cities around the world). So you can also study abroad. The way it is all worded suggests to me like they won't be making the "global" program completely independent of the main college program like Purdue did. It sounds like you'll earn UofA credits which means an UofA diploma.

They also offer undergrad, master, and doctoral level degrees, which is handy. I don't see any difference in tuition between the graduate and undergrad programs, but the site is probably not finished yet.

Given the price, this is a pretty interesting development for those of us interested in distance learning. The base tuition is a bit high for my tastes, but with the potential scholarship, it becomes much more reasonable at $6,000 per year.

[jch]

ASU Global.....

Hey Merlin, the school we are talking about here is the University of Arizona (UofA), not Arizona State University (ASU)

[MNomadic]

ASU Global.....

Hey Merlin, the school we are talking about here is the University of Arizona (UofA), not Arizona State University (ASU)

I was just going to say that. Sometimes I confuse them all too and I'm in AZ!

[rachel83az]

To make things worse, there is also NAU (Northern Arizona University).

[ss20ts]

To make things worse, there is also NAU (Northern Arizona University).

This school has a competency based online program. I have looked into it and it's pretty decent. Not ridiculously priced either if you're transferring in.

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To me this isn't a bad thing. Having UofA on your degree sounds a heck of a lot better than Ashford which sounds like a fictitious town in a tv show. I think we are going to see a lot more of this type of thing happening. COVID really pushed colleges and universities to the breaking point and many have realized that they need to step up their game and join the world in 2020. College students don't have to be 18-22 year olds. There are more adults without degrees that college age kids. The cost of this program sounds high, but maybe they're offering something we're not seeing just yet.

[Merlin]

ASU Global.....

Hey Merlin, the school we are talking about here is the University of Arizona (UofA), not Arizona State University (ASU)

I knew that but I still entered the wrong thing. I have a certificate from UofA so I should know better. In any case, it is fixed in my post now.

To make things worse, there is also NAU (Northern Arizona University).

This school has a competency based online program. I have looked into it and it's pretty decent. Not ridiculously priced either if you're transferring in.

Yeah, NAU was one of the pioneers in competency-based online education. They have a great program that is well-recommended here alongside WGU and a handful of others.

Heck, if NAU offered degrees in computer science I'd jump at the chance to give them a go for a master's or second bachelor's degree, but they only offer CIT degrees which won't really work for me.