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.

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

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