In The News Today: 06/08/10

Inside Higher Ed has a great story on the increasing use of e-textbooks at for-profit institutions.

The Chronicle of Higher Education's Kelly Field and Sara Hebel discuss the latest gossip on the much anticipated rules on gainful employment in a short audio clip.

Steve Eisman dishes out some hate for the for-profit sector in an article for the NY Post.

Acquisition News

From Inside Higher Ed:

Laureate Education, the company that owns Walden University and more than 50 other for-profit colleges and universities worldwide, announced today that it has acquired a majority stake in National Hispanic University, a nonprofit institution with a campus in San Jose, Calif.

"We're a mission-driven university for Hispanics, like the historically black colleges are for African-Americans," said David P. López, NHU's president. "We're not going to have the leadership that this state and country need" without serving Hispanic students. But despite lofty goals, the university -- which offers certificates, associate's degrees and bachelor's degrees in education, business and information technology to a largely first-generation student population -- has struggled to expand.

"The fulfillment of their mission was being prohibited by lack of capitalization," said Paula Singer, president and CEO of Laureate Higher Education Group. Laureate will provide the capital and infrastructure to help NHU expand its mission, first in San Jose, but eventually with other brick-and-mortar campuses nationwide, and possibly online course offerings.

Must Reads: 3/23/10

For-Profit partnerships with community colleges?

If we provided capital and marketing and distance learning assistance to a college, could they attract people to a fast-track type program where students can get off the waiting list immediately and graduate in two years? The only catch is that they have to pay a slightly differentiated tuition. I think older students, in particular, understand the opportunity cost of something like this and that waiting a few years just isn’t valuable to them

In this age of scarce resources and burgeoning enrollments, we’re just not going to get money from our state,” Sbrega said. “I think public-private partnerships like this one are the wave of the future. This is an outstanding example of what can be done through these partnerships. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s replicated around the state and the country.”

Kevin Kuzma:

the question about career college integrity has gone on for at least three or four decades now. The question lost its luster a long time ago. The answer isn’t likely to come in the Times or any other publication where the journalists were educated at four-year schools and have a fundamental misunderstanding about the way the sector operates. The only truth I can find is in our sector’s longevity. Those are the numbers that count.

Kaplan Survey Finds That Grading Leniency Can Influence Student Choice of Professor:

Although grading leniency is a consideration for many, within the RateMyProfessors category options, peer opinion seemed to be the greatest influencer, with “Prior student comments about the professor” as the element most often cited by Kaplan survey respondents (77%) as the factor they most consider in choosing classes. “Overall quality of a professor” was the second most considered factor (70%), and “engaging teaching style of professor” was third (66%), followed by “easy grading reputation.”

Must Reads: 3/22/10

Herald Tribune:

The fact that so many students choose private, for-profit colleges and universities simply reflects the effective job these institutions are doing, not that for-profits are in any way abusing taxpayer funds.

They exist purely on the demand of the marketplace and use the Pell grants to teach a group of students who are not particularly well served by traditional schools -- adult learners with job and family responsibilities, often without family financial support and many times the first in their family to attend college.

George Will:

Doubling down on dubious bets is characteristic of compulsive gamblers and federal education policy.
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But how does one fulfill -- or know when one has fulfilled -- Obama's goal of "college and career readiness" for every child by 2020? That gauzy goal resembles the 1994 goal that by 2000 (when, Congress dreamily decreed, every school "will be free of drugs and violence") every child would start school "ready to learn." Is "college and career readiness" one goal or two? Should everybody go to college? Is a college degree equivalent to career -- any career? -- readiness?

If such readiness is not measurable, this is another airy puff of legislative cotton candy, similar to NCLB's guarantee that every teacher will be "highly qualified."

Abundant evidence demonstrates that money is not an Archimedean lever for moving the world of education.

Kaplan University:

“The trends for online education continue to rise. Many people are looking for alternative education methods where they can be home with their family or continue to work a full time job, while get the schooling and enhanced preparation needed for advancing their career.

Keith Hampson discusses the state of competition in higher education:

Demand for higher education has never been greater (allowing for fluctuations in birth rates)

The power of suppliers, in this case academics, is increasingly low. We continue to produce PhD’s for which there are no jobs in academia. Adjuncts continue to be available, despite the remarkably low pay.

The barriers for new competitors to enter the market remain great.

Competition on price is far from intense. Tuition levels have risen faster than inflation for several years.

The majority of enrollments in online courses and programs is with local institutions. The arrival of the long-predicted global market in online higher ed is still in its infancy.

EduBubble discusses the idea of college grads receiving food stamps.

News Highlights: 01/29/10

New Cross-Sector Analysis on Student Success Study from Imagine America Foundation (HT: CHE)

Students who attend for-profit colleges have comparable and often higher retention and graduation rates than those at other institutions, according to the findings of a study released on Wednesday by the Imagine America Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides research and support for career colleges.

Inside Higher Ed:

As part of the negotiated rule making process under way this week in Washington, the U.S. Department of Education released a revised draft of regulations intended to determine whether vocational programs and most offerings at for-profit institutions prepare graduates for "gainful employment." In a plan first released this month and discussed on Monday, the department proposed that it would require that students' annual debt repayment load not exceed 8 percent of their average incomes. Several panelists had questioned the department's statutory authority to introduce a debt-to-income ratio and others voiced concerns about the new administrative burdens the proposals would create for institutions. Department officials decided to keep the 8 percent rule in place, one telling the panel that the department would never suggest a regulation that "we don’t think we have the legal authority to do." The department did, though, offer a bit of a concession, proposing that it would take on many of the responsibilities of calculating and carrying out the rule.

Also back on the table Wednesday was the issue of incentive pay for admissions and financial aid officers, which -- though it seemed to progress Tuesday -- again lagged with Elaine Neely, of Kaplan Higher Education, and Margaret Reiter, a consumer advocate, delivering suggestions for greatly differing revisions. Both issues will likely surface again Thursday, as panelists aim to reach agreement on all 14 of the rules related to the federal financial aid program under reconsideration by midday Friday.

Rep. Timothy Bishop (D, NY) introduced the Diploma and Accreditation Integrity Protection Act to Congress today, a bill that is intended to

reduce and prevent the sale and use of fraudulent degrees in order to protect the integrity of valid higher education degrees that are used for Federal employment purposes