California Bill Seeks Campus Credit for Online Study

March 13, 2013 By EDU Guy Leave a Comment

Legislation will be introduced in the California Senate on Wednesday that could reshape higher education by requiring the state’s public colleges and universities to give credit for faculty-approved online courses taken by students unable to register for oversubscribed classes on campus.

If it passes, as seems likely, it would be the first time that state legislators have instructed public universities to grant credit for courses that were not their own — including those taught by a private vendor, not by a college or university.

Click link for article below

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/education/california-bill-would-force-colleges-to-honor-online-classes.html

Educelerate VIII Conference Chicago: Current Trends with Career Colleges

January 4, 2013 By EDU Guy 1 Comment

Special $ .99 rate!!! Yes that’s correct 99 Cents, if you can get to Chicago you should consider attending this conference.

What: : Current Trends with Career Colleges

When: Thursday, January 10, 2013 6:00 PM

Who: Michael Locke (CEO of Rasmussen College, former head of Bank of America’s education and training investment banking group); Chris Boehm (CFO at Education Corporation of America and Managing Director at Willis Stein & Partners); Jim Bland (Hispania Capital Partners); Jason Williams (co-head of the education investment banking group at Barclays Capital)

Where: First Analysis, 1 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL

For further details, please see the full listing:
http://www.meetup.com/Educelerate/events/91751402/

Filed Under: Education Industry Events, Uncategorized Tagged With: career colleges, career education, education conference, education industry, for profit education, forprofit colleges, non-profit vs. for profit, student marketing

Obama’s victory means continued scrutiny for the For-Profit Education sector

November 7, 2012 By EDU Guy Leave a Comment

The re-election of President Obama isn’t likely to result in a slew of new regulations aimed at for-profit colleges. But with student debt and the cost of college expected to remain high-profile issues in his second administration, industry observers foresee little let-up in the focus on the for-profit sector.

That focus will begin, many say, with a push to resuscitate the gainful-employment regulation, a Department of Education proposal strongly opposed by for-profit colleges. And according to one community-college leader, in its new incarnation, the regulation might come back to life “in a broader form,” with portions of it applying more widely at nonprofit colleges as well. The original regulation was largely vacated by a federal judge last summer after it was challenged in court by the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, the main trade group of for-profit colleges.

And while the election brought no changes in control to either the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House of Representatives, observers also predict that for-profit colleges will continue to face heat from Democrats in Congress as deficit-cutting measures and the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act take center stage over the next few years.

“Student debt is a huge political and economic issue,” and for-profit colleges are a key part of that story, says Teddy Downey, a senior policy analyst with TJ Strategies, a firm in Washington, D.C., that provides research on education issues to investors and policy makers. “They’re still going to be a big part of the conversation.”

Some executives of for-profit colleges say privately that they hope a second-term Obama administration will shift the focus “away from just our sector to the whole sector,” and put the spotlight on curbing rising tuition at all colleges. But several analysts say that might be more wishful thinking than reality…

Tougher Version of Gainful Employment?
President Obama’s win over Mitt Romney also means the sector is likely to see continued attention from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a new agency that has already opened investigations into student-lending practices at two major for-profit-college companies, ITT Educational Services and Corinthian Colleges Inc. A win by Mr. Romney would have meant “a neutered CFPB,” says Jarrel Price of Height Analytics, a firm that follows the for-profit-college industry for financial companies.

During his campaign Mr. Romney singled out for-profit colleges as innovators and said he opposed “punitive regulations” on the sector, prompting many to assume he would let the gainful-employment regulation die if he were elected, either by not pursuing further court appeals or not attempting to rewrite the regulation to meet objections raised by the federal judge.

Click Here to read full article on the Chronicle

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: career colleges, career education, consumer demand for education, education industry, for profit education, forprofit colleges, Gainful employment, non-profit vs. for profit, obama and for profit education, obama wins election, romney favors for profit education

Flood of articles questioning the value of a college education

September 10, 2012 By EDU Guy Leave a Comment

Is it just our staff or is everyone seeing a continuous release of articles disputing the value of a college education? The flow of articles appearing daily and on all of the major newspapers & news outlets seems to be endless. Yes, while many of them are quoting valid (yet limited & specifically narrow) statistics, others leverage specifically alarming metrics and most try to relate the student loan market to the mortgage market, as a parent do you really question if your children should get a college degree? While clearly as a country we are in a position of relatively high unemployment & under employment, do you really believe we should be spreading the message to our future generations that getting a college education does not pay?

While most agree that tuition costs have grown way to high way to fast, why don’t we focus our angst and collective strength to force changes to tuition in order to make it more affordable, instead of questioning getting a degree? Why don’t we push for the removal of 90/10 so that leaders in our industry can provide cost effective college education?

Below is a link to another article questioning the value of obtaining a college degree. If you read between the lines however, they are indicating an opportunity our industry can run with… see if you can find it!

Is College a Lousy Investment?

by Megan McArdle

Mythomania about college has turned getting a degree into an American neurosis. It’s sending parents to the poorhouse and saddling students with a backpack full of debt that doesn’t even guarantee a good job in the end. With college debt making national headlines, Megan McArdle asks, is college a bum deal?

Click Here to read complete article

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: career colleges, career education, consumer demand for education, Department of Education, DOE, educational marketing, for profit education, forprofit colleges, going to college, is college worth it?, non-profit vs. for profit, value of a college education, value of a degree, why college?

The Labor Market Returns to a For-Profit College Education according to NBER study

August 27, 2012 By EDU Guy Leave a Comment

New study from the National Bureau of Economic research shows:

We find that students who enroll in associate’s degree programs in for-profit colleges experience earnings gains between 6 and 8 percent, although a 95 percent confidence interval suggests a range from -2.7 to 17.6 percent. These gains cannot be shown to be different from those of students in public community colleges. Students who complete associate’s degrees in for-profit institutions earn around 22 percent, or 11 percent per year, and we find some evidence that this figure is higher than the returns experienced by public sector graduates. Our findings suggest that degree completion is an important determinant of for-profit quality and student success.

Link to Paper

Filed Under: For Profit Education Industry, Uncategorized Tagged With: career colleges, career education, consumer demand for education, for profit education, for-profit, forprofit colleges, Gainful employment, national bureau of economic research study, new study ties more earnings to for profit colleges, non-profit vs. for profit

A judge ruling vacated a core element of the “gainful employment” rule!

July 3, 2012 By EDU Guy Leave a Comment

A federal judge’s weekend ruling vacating a core element of the “gainful employment” rule was welcomed Monday by the for-profit college industry. Many see this as vindication of their challenge to the controversial rule.

The decision however, affirmed the Department of Education’s authority to issue the rule, and advocates for tougher regulation including calling on the government to respond with new guidelines that would not be rejected for lack of a “reasoned basis.”

In striking down the regulations the court stated the following,
“The debt repayment standard was not based upon any facts at all. No expert study or industry standard suggested that the rate selected by the Department would appropriately measure whether a particular program adequately prepared its students. Instead, the Department simply explained that the chosen rate would identify the worst-performing quarter of programs…That this explanation could be used to justify any rate at all demonstrates its arbitrariness…This is not reasoned decision making. (“[I]n the absence of any reasonable justification,” the court “must conclude that this aspect of the [rule] is arbitrary and capricious.”
APSCU v. Duncan, pg. 31, 11-1314 (RC) (6/30/12)

Weighing Next Steps

A spokesman for the Education Department said Monday that officials there would decide “very shortly” whether to appeal the ruling, develop new regulations, or “do both.”

the courts decision can be found here: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2011cv1314-25

chronicle article here: http://chronicle.com/article/Ruling-on-Gainful-Employment/132737/

APSCU letter to Arne Duncan in response to the ruling here: http://apscu.informz.net/apscu/data/images/documents/lettertosecretaryduncan07012012.pdf

Filed Under: Education Industry Events, Education Investing, For Profit Education Industry, Uncategorized Tagged With: career education, debate on gainful employment, Department of Education, DOE, education debt limits, education industry, for profit education, forprofit colleges, Gainful employment, gainful employment overturned, non-profit vs. for profit

Court’s decision that struck down a portion of the “state authorization rule

June 7, 2012 By EDU Guy Leave a Comment

Many in the industry are celebrating a federal appeals court decision that tosses out portions of the U.S. Department of Education’s controversial “program integrity” rules.

In a unanimous opinion handed down Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision that struck down a portion of the “state authorization rule,” agreeing that colleges had not been given enough time to review it. The ruling also requires the department to revise regulations barring “misrepresentation” in college recruiting and to explain portions of a rule limiting the commissions colleges can pay to student recruiters.

The appellate court’s decision comes almost a year after a federal judge threw out a requirement that colleges offering online programs in other states seek approval from each of those states but upheld the department’s misrepresentation and incentive-compensation rules. The Association of Private Sector College and Universities, which represents for-profit colleges, appealed that decision last July.

To ready complete article on the chronicle: http://chronicle.com/article/Appellate-Court-Sides-With/132149/

Filed Under: For Profit Education Industry, Uncategorized Tagged With: career colleges, career education, courts void authorization rule, Department of Education, DOE, for profit education, forprofit colleges, non-profit vs. for profit, quality of online degrees, state authorization rule, student marketing

Crossing to the Dark Side? An Interview-Based Comparison of Traditional and For-Profit Higher Education

March 5, 2012 By EDU Guy Leave a Comment

American Enterprise Institute recently published a paper on comparison between for profit education and non-profit education.

In the past year, for-profit higher education providers have
been thrust into the spotlight. The fastest growing postsecondary
sector has come under unprecedented scrutiny
from policymakers, regulators, and the media. Critics
have zeroed in on a range of concerns, from perceived
dubious recruiting tactics and overblown promises about
students’ future employability to excessive student debt
and problematic default rates. For their part, for-profits
have deployed a formidable lobbying apparatus to argue
that their efforts are being unfairly maligned with applesto-
oranges comparisons that do not do justice to the
important education access they provide to previously
underserved students.
Largely missing from the debate, however, has been a
more detailed look at how traditional and for-profit institutions
differ in important areas like administration,
instructor experience, mission and governance, data collection
and use, and student recruitment and retention.
This paper is an effort to get beyond sensationalized headlines
and examine these questions from the point of view
of individuals who have moved from the traditional to the
for-profit sector—or kept a foot in both. These insiders
highlighted a variety of characteristics they say distinguish
the for-profits where they work from the nonprofit institutions
with which they are also familiar.

Trial, Error, and Measurement. Perhaps the biggest appeal
of for-profits for those who have joined the sector is that
they are relatively new postsecondary institutions—works
in progress in which experimentation is encouraged and
inevitable.

Rethinking the Faculty’s Role.

Practical Instruction and Student Support.

Click Here to read the complete paper

Filed Under: For Profit Education Industry, Uncategorized Tagged With: career colleges, career education, Department of Education, DOE, education industry, for profit education, for-profit, forprofit colleges, non-profit vs. for profit, quality of online degrees, quality of online education

Interview with Clifford & Robert Shireman

February 14, 2012 By EDU Guy Leave a Comment

for profti edu vs. non profit

Ariel Sokol a known analyst covering the For Profit Education sector conducted an interview with both Robert Shireman and Michael Clifford. Two interesting people with unique and different views on the the industry get together to answer & debate issues, questions and the state of the industry.

To view the interview Q&A please Click Here or on the link below:

http://significantfederation.com/resources/coffee-with-robert-shireman

Filed Under: For Profit Education Industry, Uncategorized Tagged With: career colleges, career education, Department of Education, DOE, education industry, for profit education, forprofit colleges, Gainful employment, Michael Clifford, non-profit vs. for profit, robert shireman

Education Aid, Inc. Announces New Jersey Student is First Winner of $5,000 Support a Student Scholarship Program

January 31, 2012 By EDU Guy Leave a Comment

ForprofitEDU.com is proud to be a partner of Educationaid.org

Education Aid, Inc. Announces New Jersey Student is First Winner of $5,000 Support a Student Scholarship Program

Rutgers University student benefits from innovative scholarship program.

Tenafly, NJ – (January 31, 2012) - Education Aid, Inc. announced the winner for their first-ever self funded Support a Student Scholarship Program for a New Jersey student attending a New Jersey State school. The recipient, Sasha Bostick, is a bachelor’s degree candidate studying Sociology at Rutgers University and a single mother of one.

The scholarship program was developed to help economically disadvantaged students who are at risk of dropping out of school due to a lack of financial support. With the Support a Student Scholarship Program, Education Aid has developed an innovative approach to making education accessible to many students who would otherwise not be able to afford to go to school. Students who need to work and go to school at the same time, especially single parents, face many responsibilities that sometimes prove to be too much of a financial burden and their education suffers as a result.

“In the Fall of 2011 I was thinking about dropping out of college after already taking 114 credits toward my major. I am raising a son while attaining my bachelor’s degree. I found myself having poor attendance because I could not afford daycare for my son. Also, not having enough financial aid to pay for books was a major issue and caused me to fall behind in my courses. I was selected to participate in this scholarship program through Education Aid and now I am receiving the daycare that I need for my son, enabling me to attend my night classes. Education Aid also bought my required textbooks and replaced my broken computer, which I could not afford to fix. I would not be enrolled in school this semester without this help, and will use this opportunity to attain my degree in Sociology.” ~ Sasha Bostick

She added that after graduating from Rutgers, “I hope to work in the field of Child Advocacy, which will allow me to give back to others the way that Education Aid has given to me.”

Bostick will be awarded $5,000 to pay for on-campus day care, textbooks, and school supplies for the 2012 Spring and Summer semesters.

Education Aid, Inc. is thrilled to be able to prevent a student from leaving school and enabling her to complete her degree. “This type of aid is extremely limited and desperately needed by so many students,” said Karyn Balfour, the Founder and CEO of Education Aid. “There are many costs, other than tuition, associated with earning your degree that typical financial aid packages do not cover,” said Balfour. Without any financial support to help pay for these expenses, students are forced to work and go to school at the same time. “When students are unable to pay for basic living expenses, they are put in a position where they need to choose between school and work. Unfortunately, too many times they end up dropping out,” Balfour said.

About Education Aid, Inc.

It is the mission of Education Aid to change the lives of students around the country by providing them with the financial support they need to complete their education. This is done through the Support a Student Scholarship Program. Participants of this Program will have payments made on their behalf for non-tuition related expenses that are not being covered by their current financial aid amounts. Many economically disadvantaged students do not receive enough financial support to pay for such expenses and ultimately end up dropping out of school. This Program was created to identify these students and provide them with the financial support necessary to enable them to complete their degrees. You can read more about Education Aid at: www.educationaid.org.

Filed Under: For Profit Education Industry, Uncategorized Tagged With: admissions, education aid, education scholarships, educationaid.org, for profit education, forprofit colleges, non-profit vs. for profit, rutgers scholarship, student scholarships