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 January 2010, Australia-based Navitas sealed its first U.S. deal, a 10-year contract with Western Kentucky University.  Since then,  the company has signed three more  agreements – with the Universities of [...]]]> Inside Higher Ed reports that U.S. colleges are increasingly turning to for-profit pathway programs for international students in a bid to boost revenues.

In January 2010, Australia-based Navitas sealed its first U.S. deal, a 10-year contract with Western Kentucky University.  Since then,  the company has signed three more  agreements – with the Universities of Massachusetts at Boston, Dartmouth and Lowell.

Students entering the Navitas program at Western Kentucky will need deep pockets.  According to the fee schedule, the costs are over $22,000 for three semesters, plus a mandatory $1,000 medical insurance charge. The pre-master’s program is nearly $10,000 and runs just one semester.

With the U.S. recession clobbering college finances, other for-profit pathway providers are swooping down upon campuses across the country with promises of bountiful new revenue streams from full fee-paying international students. Study Group International, recently purchased by a U.S. private equity firm, is setting up programs at Dean and Fisher Colleges, and Madison University. Meanwhile, Kaplan International which already runs a “Global Pathways Program” at Northeastern University opened its second program earlier this year at the University of Utah.  And UK-based INTO has signed long-term contracts with Oregon State University and the University of South Florida.

INTO’s joint ventures with Oregon State and South Florida generated headlines earlier this year when the Commission on English Language Accreditation initially revoked the accreditation of the two universities’ English language institutes after they were taken over by INTO.

Ironically, the rising number of private pathways programs comes at a time when the U.S. Congress is looking at new rules to reign in the more questionable practices of many for-profit colleges. Surely it’s time to shine a similar light on Navitas, Study Group, Kaplan and INTO?

NYU had been facing mounting criticism from human rights and labour organizations over the university’s controversial venture into the United Arab Emirates where the basic rights of workers [...]]]> Construction workers building New York University’s new Abu Dhabi campus will be guaranteed some basic protections under a deal announced earlier this month by the university.

NYU had been facing mounting criticism from human rights and labour organizations over the university’s controversial venture into the United Arab Emirates where the basic rights of workers are routinely violated. Human Rights Watch has reported that UAE labour laws, “fail to protect workers’ rights to organize and to bargain collectively, provide punishments for striking workers, and exclude from coverage domestic workers employed in private households.”

Under the terms of the deal reached this month, NYU will require companies contracted to build the university’s branch campus to reimburse employees for any fees they may have paid to recruitment agencies, ensure that overtime is voluntary and property compensated, and provide employees with vacation and paid holidays.

While the agreement is important, gaps nevertheless remain. There doesn’t appear to be any independent monitoring mechanism, nor is there a duty for employers to pay a living wage or recognize the right of employees to bargain collectively.

However, the deal may be something education unions can build upon to press their domestic institutions into fully respecting core labour rights when operating overseas.

The admissions officers allege the University of Phoenix obtained federal student aid under false pretenses.

In a news release issued October 27 by the University’s parent [...]]]> The largest for-profit university in the United States is reportedly prepared to spend more than $80 million to settle a six-year-old whistle-blowing case filed by former admissions officers.

The admissions officers allege the University of Phoenix obtained federal student aid under false pretenses.

In a news release issued October 27 by the University’s parent company, the Apollo Group, it was reported that $80.5 million was the “best estimate of the loss to be incurred in connection with this matter, including associated expenses.”

In response to concerns about student drop-out rates, the company also announced that it was instituting new procedures to improve retention.

Buried near the end of the news release was the announcement that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had begun an “informal inquiry” into how the Apollo Group reports its revenues to investors.

The Apollo Group also owns BPP Professional Education which in 2007 became the first for-profit degree provider in the U.K.

A scathing critique of the corporate university? No, it’s the latest television ad blitz by Kaplan University, the U.S.-based on-line for-profit [...]]]> A pensive  looking professor rises to the lectern, removes his glasses and surveys his class. “I stand before you today…to apologize,” he declares solemnly. “The system has failed you, I have failed you.”

A scathing critique of the corporate university? No, it’s the latest television ad blitz by Kaplan University, the U.S.-based on-line for-profit provider. The ad evokes some well-worn and insulting stereotypes of the ivory tower, and issues a call for a private sector revolution in higher education. No more classrooms, no more books, and definitely no more rumpled profs. Just an educational utopia of iPods, laptops and just in time education.

I admit the ad is well crafted. But it leaves out some important details…like just what is education all about anyway? According to Kaplan’s ad, it seems to be mainly about transmitting bytes from corporate HQ to isolated students — er, customers –  in bedrooms, kitchens and subways across the world.  Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t that a decidedly dystopic vision of the future of higher education?