Growth Trends

Chad Adelman discusses trends in enrollment and completion growth in the for-profit industry:

While for-profits enroll only about 7 percent of all undergraduate students, their growth rate far outpaces public and private, not-for-profit institutions. Public college and university enrollment increased 19 percent from 2000 to 2008. Private, not-for-profit enrollment rose 15 percent over the same period. For-profit enrollment tripled.

It’s not just enrollment either. The growth in the number of degrees awarded by for-profit colleges over the last ten years is astounding. They gave out 127 percent more associate’s , 456 percent more bachelor’s, 804 percent more Master’s, and 572 percent more doctoral degrees. For comparison’s sake, the publics granted 27, 27, 27, and 29 percent more degrees, respectively. The raw number of degrees granted by for-profits still pale in comparison to those granted by publics, but, if these growth rates continue for another decade, it’ll be a much different story. For example, if the rates continue as they have, for-profits institutions would award more Master’s degrees than public universities by the year 2015. That would be a rather remarkable occasion.