The report lists a series of concrete examples of how for-profit higher education is failing:

The University of Phoenix – the nation’s largest for-profit postsecondary education provider [...]]]> In a scathing report, the U.S.-based Education Trust is accusing American for-profit colleges of making out like bandits while students are left with crippling levels of debt.

The report lists a series of concrete examples of how for-profit higher education is failing:

The University of Phoenix – the nation’s largest for-profit postsecondary education provider – collected more than $1 billion in federal Pell Grant aid last year. In 2008, however, its six-year graduation rate was just 9 percent. At individual Phoenix institutions, the highest student-success rate was 33 percent at the New Mexico campus; the lowest rate was just 4 percent at the Cleveland and Wichita campuses.

In 2008, 31 percent of the students attending DeVry University graduated in six years.

The six-year graduation rate at Westwood College was 27 percent in 2008.

The report concludes that for-profit colleges are operating on a business model founded on “systemic failure.”

Firstly, the Browne review recommended removing the [...]]]> UK universities have been rocked in the last month by 40% cuts to public funding, proposals to raise student tuition fees to £9000, to completely marketise the funding base for many subjects and, predictably, to make it easier for US for-profit companies to expand to fill the gaps.

Firstly, the Browne review recommended removing the cap from student fees (they are currently capped at just over £3000), allowing universities to charge whatever they liked. The government has since indicated that it will cap fees at £9000, a move that will still make the UK the most expensive place to study in the world, saddle students with staggering debts and lead to the stratification of provision. UCU said that this represented ‘the final nail in the coffin for an affordable university degree for the vast majority of ordinary families.’: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5058&from=5047&start=11

The other bombshell in the Browne report was the recommendation to remove all public funding from all but a few stretguc priority subjects, making arts and humanities and many social science subjects entirely dependent on student recruitment for their survival. UCU said that this would lead to the closure of departments and whole universities, the overall narrowing of provision and would have a ‘chilling’ effect on innovation. In short, it represents an attack on everyting that universities are supposed to stand for.

Shortly afterwards, the government confirmed its widely anticipated 40%  cuts to university funding, indicating that it intended to enact the recommendations of the Browne report. As the union emphasised, this will have a devastating effect on the sector, leading to a loss of capacity and innovation that will take decades to repair, while betraying generations of young people by shutting them out of higher education: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5066&from=5047

But don’t worry, says the government. All will be well, for for private sector will step in to save the day. As we’ve posted here in the past, US education companies are moving into the UK in a big way and have been lobbying the government for a ‘level playing field’ that would give them access to publicly subsidised loans, public funding, and university title. In short, they want to produce the same conditions in the UK that enabled the astronomical growth of the for-profit sector in the USA. The trouble is, as we have pointed out, this is the high road to the same kind of mis-selling and corruption scandals that have rocked the US for-profit sector recently. We tried to tell the government this in October with the publication of a new report that detailed these problems: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5023&from=5003. But it seems they weren’t listening.

In Italy, things are going from bad to worse. This Government has cut funding in every public branch. Schools, Universities and public institutions of research have been the first victims. We had, all in all, a cut of about 10 billions euros in 3 years, which [...]]]> A report from Marco Broccati, FLC CGIL (Italy)

In Italy, things are going from bad to worse. This Government has cut funding in every public branch. Schools, Universities and public institutions of research have been the first victims. We had, all in all, a cut of about 10 billions euros in 3 years, which means a cut of 150,000 teachers and researchers in the same period. At this time, school teachers are striking in front of the Parliament without eating and drinking. But the Minister of Education Gelmini refuses to meet them, pretending that this is a “political protest” set up by the opposition Parties. Our public school system is disrupted: we cannot guarantee services to families. So is the University system: by the end of the year, most Universities will not be able to pay the wages of teachers and technical-administrative staff. As for research institutions, all funding for research projects has been cut. The so-called “reforms” of school and university have only the aim to cut and reduce the role and presence of the public sector, giving way to private schools and universities. It should be remarked that while the funding of public institutions has been reduced, private institutions have grown their funding. This year we’ll have to deal with about 40,000 school teachers losing their job. Can you call this the “knowledge society”? It really looks like a project to create an “ignorant society” This is what our Government is planning for our future. But they won’t succeed. Knowledge workers and FLC will make a stand.

Marco Broccati. FLC CGIL.

“Some 62% of Post revenues [...]]]> An interesting report in the Observer newspaper on 22 August picked up that Kaplan’s parent company, the Washington Post, saw its share price fall to the lowest point this year as the row about defaults on student loans among private sector students in the USA continues. Peter Preston’s report noted:

“Some 62% of Post revenues last year come from the Kaplan private education empire it owns: 600 institutions in 30 countries, 1 million students, 31,000 staff. It’s a profitable empire over two dozen major sites in the UK alone. Think Liverpool, Leicester and Bradford, as well as Holborn College.

But in the US, its former students seem a bit slow at repaying their loans – repayment rates are 28% as opposed to 54% of alumni at public colleges – and federal financial aid is in jeopardy. So the share price plummets.”

Read the full story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/22/washington-post-studen-loan-trouble

As the Times [...]]]> UCU warned the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government that encouraging the growth of private universities would damage the UK’s international reputation and invite serious questions about standards. BPP, the subsidiary of Apollo which has degree awarding powers, has been lobbying the government heavily to relax the regulations on who can call themselves a university.

As the Times Higher reported on 24 June, the government has faced ”intense lobbying by BPP, and other private providers, to bring in changes that would help them compete on a “level playing field” with publicly funded institutions. Suggestions include allowing the private sector better access to the student loans system, making it easier for them to call themselves universities, and wider distribution of degree-awarding powers.”

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=412183&c=1

BPP has secured the government’s agreement that it will be allowed to call itself a ‘university college’ – an ambiguous title that does not require it to fulfil the current requirements of ‘university title’.

The union ran a poll of 500 professors which showed that an overwhelming majority (96%) did not believe it should be easier for private companies to call themselves universities.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “Encouraging the growth of private providers and making it easier for them to call themselves universities would be a disaster for the UK’s academic reputation. It would also represent a huge threat to academic freedom and standards.”

In September UCU produced a report outlining its concerns over the expansion of private providers in UK higher education. A copy of Privatising our Universities can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2uad6g5

Further reading:

http://tinyurl.com/34qa6lc – press release

http://tinyurl.com/27ujcqz – Telegraph

According to The Australian, the Chinese Ministry of Education says Australia’s private colleges, even if they are properly accredited by local authorities, are “unstable and risky.”

“Students should be cautious and [...]]]> The Chinese government has taken the unusual step of issuing a public warning for students to stay away from private colleges in Australia.

According to The Australian, the Chinese Ministry of Education says Australia’s private colleges, even if they are properly accredited by local authorities, are “unstable and risky.”

“Students should be cautious and not choose education providers that mainly enrol international students under a short-term business model based upon education as export,” the Education Ministry said in the widely distributed alert.

Thousands of private and for-profit Australian colleges have sprung up in recent years hoping to cash in on the country’s $AUD 17 billion education industry.

But the marketisation of the higher education system has damaged Australia’s international reputation as several high profile for-profit operations have collapsed, leaving students high and dry.