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The New York Times reports that (duh) higher education for profit is falling a bit short of its billing.

PHOENIX — The University of Phoenix became the nation’s largest private university by delivering high profits to investors and a solid, albeit low-overhead, education to midcareer workers seeking college degrees.

But its reputation is fraying as prominent educators, students and some of its own former administrators say the relentless pressure for higher profits, at a university that gets more federal student financial aid than any other, has eroded academic quality.

According to federal statistics and government audits, the university relies more on part-time instructors than all but a few other postsecondary institutions, and its accelerated academic schedule races students through course work in about half the time of traditional universities. The university says that its graduation rate, using the federal standard, is 16 percent, which is among the nation’s lowest, according to Department of Education data. But the university has dozens of campuses, and at many, the rate is even lower.

One hopes that not only is this sort of report a deathknell for the starry-eyed private-sector utopianism, dreaming of a McCollege serving up Extra Value Meal degrees all over America, that made its presence so strongly felt in the late-1990s, but especially that the administrators of not-for-profit universities heed the warning wrapped in this piece: that the drive for educational "efficiency," at the expense of teaching quality, and for ever cheaper pseudo-faculties, filled almost entirely with adjuncts, eventually leaves you with a lean, mean and ultimately valueless degree-mill where a university used to be.

Comments

[C. W. Owen]

Follow, if you will, through this litany: The workplace is convinced by the not-for-profit universities that the only prerequisite for many non-technical jobs is a 'college degree'. This began in the forties and continues today. Mid-life workers, or workers who 'grew up' and found they should have stayed in school, now need the degree to advance...a degree in anything. The demand they created...created the University of Phoenix and other on-line, accellerated degree programs. Now the workplace is seeing that a 'degree in anything' isn't what they need, so they are closely scrutinizing the curricula of the on-line (but accredited) degree sources. Classic supply and demand created the new 'diploma mills' (however accredited)and demand is driving more products from their efforts (which is apparently reducing 'quality'). Economics should mean adjustment in either quality or quantity, which will better serve workplace demands.

[Adam Kotsko]

I'm sure they'll find a way to rise from the ashes.

Get it? Get it?

[00101010]

Postmodernist uncertainty quickly becomes certainty when someone, or some institution, dares to question the hallowed tradition of Academia ---especially the sovereignity of Belle-Lettres, Inc. That an institution of higher learning is online, or even operated for a profit doesn't make it wrong. One could argue that all universities should be required to offer their curriculum online, ala MIT's OpenCourseWare---yet for credit. Granted that's not so PC: and such a strategy would curtail the mojo of many tenured literary or metaphysical or humanist orators, so it's unlikely to come about.

[Yusef A]

Rock on, 01001010.

[CR]

technoanarchs in the house, eh?

Um, I take it that you didn't directly address me because this phrase - "Postmodernist uncertainty" - characterizes very, very little of what I think or do. And you know this, I think. Hence, no "you" in your post.

That an institution of higher learning is online, or even operated for a profit doesn't make it wrong

Apparently, operating it for a profit does make it shitty. Did you read the article?

One could argue that all universities should be required to offer their curriculum online, ala MIT's OpenCourseWare---yet for credit.

All for it. Set up the site and I'll post my lectures, course materials, whatever. All cultural and intellectual work should be free, open, etc etc... I have no problem with this.

(The credit part is a bit sticky, as the classroom is an important part of the work that we do together, the students and I. But make the university free and open to all, and as web-accessible as possible. No complaint from me....)

Think before you write. Seriously. "For profit" and "open" don't really jive. Is the University of Phoenix the sort of thing that you think about when you think OpenCourseWare?

[Yusef A]

"Free", meaning without cost, and "for-profit" don't really jive, but whether "for-profit" and "open" don't really jive would need to be argued for a little more strenuously than you have here...In the absence of any argument, it looks like you are simply indulging biases, maybe of the type 0100 indicates.

I also think there might be some discrepancy between your allegation that these are "diploma mills" and the fact that they have low graduation rates. If these institutions really are no more than "diploma mills" wouldn't it be in their interest to have the highest graduation rates? And why wouldn't students, if all they want is a diploma and this is the fastest and easiest way to get it, stay in, all else being equal?

[CR]

On the "for-profit" / "open" question. Trollo was refering to open-courseware. Let me make it very, very simple for you: I work at a state university. I absolutely guarantee that absolutely no one would give a shit if I posted all the materials from my courses, right up to videos of lectures, etc on the web. In fact, I'd probably get some props for "public outreach."

If I "taught" "at" the University of Phoenix, there is no way in hell that they would let me do that. Why would they? That is exactly what they are selling. They would fire me in a second.

Further, I think they are "diploma mills" because I have doubts in their model working to educate students in any way comparable to a brick-and-mortar university. I believe in face to face interaction - can't imagine a good education that didn't involve it. That's all.

The specifics on why people leave etc I don't really know. I suspect many feel going in that this will be a cheap and easy way to get a degree, and then realize halfway through that it's a joke, pointless and head elsewhere. I don't really know - do you? Why do you think they leave?

[Yusef A]

It's at least possible that the low graduation rate is due to the difficulty for many people to be inner-directed and self-motivated, and to perservere on their own, by their own, lonely old self...as will be required working via the internet, without, as you call it, "face-to-face" interaction.

At first, I was going to call your attention to just how little "face-to-face" interaction there is for most students these days at a brick and mortar institution, especially during the first two years. I don't think our "educational system" is particularly good at providing this, really, if what is meant by "face-to-face" interaction is contact and in-depth discussion with faculty. But at a brick and mortar institution, you have social interaction with other students and some sort of peer group, people going through what you are going through, and this matters and is an integral and good part of the experience.

It'd be a stroke of genius for the U of Phoenix to find some way to organize some semblance of that sort of peer group interaction for their students - it'd cost Phoenix very little or nothing and it could improve their graduation rates dramatically.

I have an 18 yo daughter who begins her uni education next fall. If I am a little edgy on this subject, it is because I think that tuition costs nowadays are excessive to the point of fraudulence, and can't be justified or sustained, and the " demand for degrees" ( but not skill, not education,)is in large part pitting the working class against itself, has nothing to do with progressivism, and yet the uni system has a vested interest in maintaining this - and is therefore, as trollo noted, working against popular interests.

[00100101]

"""absolutely no one would give a shit if I posted all the materials from my courses""""

Ah Commandante CR, perhaps some out in Trolloland could assist with online curriculum development. Yass, kids need the MIT rocket science, Einstein, et al, (and MIT non-rocket science too--Gnome Chumsky! for the peoples); but imagine like some cool postmod. CyberSchool:

20th Century CorpseCount 400

Al, Lucky, Meyer: A History of the Five Points Gang

Hack the Feds for Phunn and Profit

Les Deux Magots: Hangin' with JP and the Beav. and their friends

Dialectic: Hitler/Stalin Pact

Beat Kix for Consumers 500

The Kennedy Crime Family

etc. etc.

[CR]

I think that tuition costs nowadays are excessive to the point of fraudulence, and can't be justified or sustained,

I don't disagree with you there, not at all. If I had my druthers, they'd be free, the universities. But if you're looking for someone to blame, it's not the faculty but rather (if you're american) the federal and state governments for not funding the schools and the students sufficiently.

At first, I was going to call your attention to just how little "face-to-face" interaction there is for most students these days at a brick and mortar institution, especially during the first two years. I don't think our "educational system" is particularly good at providing this, really, if what is meant by "face-to-face" interaction is contact and in-depth discussion with faculty.

Same with this point. We need larger faculties, which would afford more time with students, including those early in time at school. The way the place where I teach is set up, I rarely see first or second years, who are mostly taught by grad students and adjunct teachers.

I have 45 in my undergrad classes (all "upper level") each and every time. What a lousy number. Not my choice.

I just take issue with the sense that a for-profit university ever would handle this any differently. There are so many corners to cut in university teaching, places to save a few cents and remove something no one would notice was missing. If I were treated like an "employee" I'd likely not be all that willing to take the extra time that I do with students.

[00101001]

""""""""We need larger faculties, which would afford more time with students, including those early in time at school.""""""""

Nyet. We need smaller faculties, and to use the funds saved by terminating 3/4 of the faculty and administration for, like, rilly cool stuff: like open enrollment, online courses (take a course in the Gambino Crime Family this semester at Kazcynski College!) offered for phree or a nominal charge--. Every f-n thing could be online, everywhere, 'cept for a few courses in bottlewashing. Why aren't there more serious, upper div. or graduate online classes say covering Ulysses or Crime and Punishment? or the Joys of Carnap ? (with all the requisite secondary literature etc.). Because the literary clerics and metaphysicians would stand to lose, boo-coo.

Before basing an opinion on the NY Times article, you should first separate fact from fiction; or in NY Times journalist’s case, fact from fabrication.

FICTION: At UOP profits trump academic quality, and therefore its reputation is fraying.

“The University of Phoenix became the nation’s largest private university by delivering high profits to investors and a solid, albeit low-overhead, education.”
“’Wall Street has put them under inordinate pressure to keep up the profits, and my take on it is that they succumbed to that...’” (quoting David W. Breneman, Dean, U. of Virginia)

“Its fortunes are closely watched because it is the giant of for-profit postsecondary education; it received $1.8 billion in federal student aid in 2004-5…”

“… its reputation is fraying as prominent educators, students and some of its own former administrators say the relentless pressure for higher profits, at a university that gets more federal student financial aid than any other, has eroded academic quality.”
FACT: To speculate that profits trump academic quality is myth, born out of elitist concepts of what should constitute an institution of higher education.

The University of Phoenix was well on its way to becoming the nation’s largest private university well before its parent company, the Apollo Group went public. Universities do not become large because of “low overhead” or “high profits”; but, rather, because of demand for quality academic programs.

The University of Phoenix is one of the very few institutions of higher learning – public or private - completely devoted to providing access to higher education for working students. It is commonly recognized, and frequently copied, by even the most traditional academic institutions, for its innovative teaching/learning model geared specifically for working adults.

University of Phoenix is the largest institution of higher learning in the U.S. so it is not surprising that its students are the recipients of large amounts of federal student financial aid.

. FICTION: UOP has an exceptionally low retention rate.
“The university says that its graduation rate, using the federal standard, is 16 percent, which is among the nation’s lowest, according to Department of Education data. But the university has dozens of campuses, and at many, the rate is even lower.”

FACT: Mr. Dillon deceived himself and the public by reporting 16% (and lower) as the completion rate for the University of Phoenix, despite the fact that he was informed via email by the University President that the 16% completion rate applied to only 7% of our total student population.

The federal IPEDS database (as the author was properly informed) requires that universities report only those students who had no prior college experience which, as disclosed in our consumer information notice, represented less than 7% of the University’s total student population.

The University of Phoenix serves a large population of students who bring a significant level of prior college work as well as professional experience to their college courses and their graduation data is not reportable in the federal IPEDS database. In fact, the IPEDS statistics quoted do not apply to 93% of UOP’s students.

The completion/graduation rate for all University of Phoenix students has been historically maintained between 50 - 60%, the very same averages found in most traditional 4-year public colleges.

The University expects that students entering its new Associates degree programs will have lower graduation rates than this, as is the case at all colleges and universities serving the same student population with the same student demographics - but these programs are only beginning to have graduates at University of Phoenix, as they were introduced only recently.

The article is replete with misinformation and omission. Whether the journalist did this because he lacked the acumen to understand the data or he intentionally mislead his readers, I cannot say.

I can say, though, that the article was misleading because Mr. Dillon chose only negative data to attempt to support his thesis that: The University of Phoenix is not providing a sound education to its hundreds of thousands of students.

a. It seriously violates two critical principles of proper journalism: the principle of fair comment (listening to both sides, in the pursuit of fairness) and the principle of clear distinction between news and opinion (the need to draw a clear line between what is news and what is personal opinion).

b. Mr. Dillon was offered access to much data regarding the University’s programs and academic procedures, but instead he cherry picked data that he must have known would create a false picture of the University’s retention and graduation rates.

c. Furthermore, most of his argument against the University of Phoenix appears to be based on five-year-old attacks that have long been proven false or exaggerated (see the content dates of the items in the Web sites he uses as references).
d. Objective proof of bias: He reduced the many positives of the University to one 1.5 column inch example of a satisfied student wedged between 70 column inches of highly negative assertions, unsupported assumptions, and damaging innuendoes.

[CR]

Wow. A for-profit blog commenter commenting for a for-profit university. A Long Sunday first, no?

I'm sure you're not around to respond, but I'll just say a couple of things.

1) FACT: To speculate that profits trump academic quality is myth, born out of elitist concepts of what should constitute an institution of higher education.

Um, FACT: You are a publically traded corporation. You are required by law to increase profits. You are not a NASDAQ based charity. You might treat students well, or treat them badly, but obviously profit comes first. Do your shareholders know these "facts"?

2) What's with the Fred Luntzisms? Seriously, your PR-firm needs to update its library... Sounds like you're spending too much time with a dogeared copy of B. Goldberg's Bias.

born out of elitist concepts of what should constitute an institution of higher education.

Right... Another case of obscene anti-corporate elitism. Just so. It's just a taste issue for those of us who'd like to maintain a healthy public university system.

a. It seriously violates two critical principles of proper journalism: the principle of fair comment (listening to both sides, in the pursuit of fairness) and the principle of clear distinction between news and opinion (the need to draw a clear line between what is news and what is personal opinion).

Fair-and-balanced, right? Like, if someone smells the stink on your company, you should be allowed equal column space just to guarantee that it's clear that this is all just a matter of opinions, pro and con. Got it.

Objective proof of bias: He reduced the many positives of the University to one 1.5 column inch example of a satisfied student wedged between 70 column inches of highly negative assertions, unsupported assumptions, and damaging innuendoes.

See, there's the thing. You know this - but you throw your Bernie Goldberg bullshit up as if we care on this site.

Oh, and on the regarding the completion rate of your students: Could you provide us the stats on students that join your program with minimal credits remaining (say a class or two or three - less than a full academic year) and their completion rate. As well, of course, the percentage of students who start at UOP in that situation. Because, well, that might slant the numbers up a bit, no?

[jejourite]

God, this thread is hilarious. Well done, CR.

[01001010]

the University of Phoenix, rising from the assssshuzzzzz

[Matt]

And then there's the Assessment Movement for college faculty...or, as some would say, "the coming auditors."

The logic being, apparently: "well if it justifies neo-segregation at the younger levels..."

[Yusef A]

"God, this thread is hilarious. Well done, CR."

Please explain why this thread is hilarious, Jejourite.