Interesting article from University Ventures Fund:

If you’ve seen Moneyball, the new baseball film about the unlikely success of the Oakland A’s and their out-of-the-box-thinking General Manager Billy Beane, you may have already drawn parallels to the current state of higher education. If not, we’re pleased to do it for you!

Like baseball ten years ago, higher education is focused on what’s easy to measure. For baseball it may have been body parts, batting average and the number on the radar gun. For higher education, it’s the 3Rs: research, rankings and real estate. Each of these areas is easily quantified or judged: research citations or number of publications in Nature and Science; U.S. News ranking (or colleges choose from a plethora of new entrants to the ranking game, including the international ranking by Shanghai Jiao Tong University); and in terms of real estate, how much has been spent on a new building and how stately, innovative and generally impressive it appears.

Unfortunately, the 3Rs correlate about as closely to student learning and student outcomes as batting average or fastball velocity, which is to say, not at all. Buildings are the “ugly girlfriend” of higher education.

Universities that continue to focus on the 3Rs in the wake of the seismic shifts currently roiling higher education (state budget cuts, increased sticker shock, technology-based learning) are either not serious about improving student learning and student outcomes, or they’re like the baseball fan who has lost her car keys in the stadium parking lot at night: Where does she look for them? Not where she lost them, but under the light because that’s where she can see.

To read the entire article: http://universityventuresfund.com/publications.php?title=moneycollege-where-is-the-billy-beane-of-higher-education

New article by Michael Clifford on significant Ventures

Some would say that the for-profit postsecondary sector is on its last legs… DOA. Capitalism.” He calls this framework for success his Four Gospels of Higher Education:

Fifteen publicly traded education companies have seen their stocks decline by 33% on average since December 2009 versus a 5% increase for the S&P 500. Media accounts abound of allegations regarding improper practices at publicly traded companies, including marketing misrepresentation and fraudulent reporting of placement rates. Twenty state attorneys general are investigating for-profit institutions. No other sector has been as demonized as the for-profit sector has among state and federal politicians over the past several years.

to read the article in its entirety: http://significantfederation.com/eblast/2011.09.14/landing/

ForProfitEdu.com is pleased to announce a Special opportunity for a Free trial of the CareerMotivations Assessment for its Members.  This opportunity is open to the first 10 Colleges that inquire and get started.  CareerMotivations is a fully validated assessment (University of Minnesota did the validation study) and over 7,000,000++ have taken the assessment.  In essence a person takes the assessment and it tells them which career paths (US govt. data Onet) they are most motivated to enjoy & succeed in.  It provides them with their learning styles, motivational qualities & which corresponding degree programs (available at your colleges) are a best match for them based on Govt. CIP code (Classification of Instructional Programs). It also provides the most recent Government data as to the career description, the employment outlook for that career path, related career paths, as well as salary information.

The tool is customized for each school/system, CareerMotivations enters all of the schools specific programs (CIP codes) and the school tells us what questions to ask on the registration (this becomes a valuable lead).  Then the user takes the assessment and when completed they can see the matches to each of the school’s programs as well as all of the government descriptions around each of them.   The report data is incredibly easy to understand yet detailed and the relationship & trust the admissions representative can have with the potential student and family is unmatched.   In essence, it provides a new low cost means of generating interested students, a strong bond and value created with admissions and a greater likelihood the student enrolls in the correct program (thus more likely to graduate), not to mention it shows the world that the school cares about each student individually and makes efforts to help the student make wise choices with accurate information.

Additional benefits over time include the ability to identify specific motivational traits & learning styles which tend to align with students who graduate as well as those students who drop.  Once these are identified, schools can utilize this information on intake to determine the appropriate degree path for the student and which ones may need additional attention from student management to help them graduate.

Schools thus far, have been interested in adding this to their website for increased inquiry generation, utilization in recirculation email campaigns to regenerate students from old leads and in social media & TV advertising to increase return on their advertising.

If you are interested in the Free Trial please contact us: http://www.careermotivations.com/contact-us/

CareerMotivations and ForprofitEDu are non related entities, if your firm has a special offer for the 5000+ member of forprofitedu.com group please contact us

With all that’s going on with regards to compliance and schools taking more and more time to be selective in who they work with, will aggregators eventually give in to transparency?  This topic is one of many heated discussions.  I have been to multiple edu marketing  panels with the who’s who of the major edu aggregators and it seems to be split.  Some of them say that if forced to they will come around and identify all of their sources, others however refuse to and say they will never disclose every source for their leads.  They believe their lead quality speaks for itself and don’t believe transparency is necessary.   Well these firmare very protective of their sources and they do not want to be open for cannibalization, but if there is some type of vendor protection why can’t there be complete transparency.  Some believe its because of the use of call center generated leads which continue to be tossed into the pile of Internet generated leads for many of the lead providers both at the top and bottom of the food chain.  I think schools have the right to know where the leads are comming from PROVIDED they protect the lead sources from their vendors, non-circumvention, non-disclosure etc should help provide this protection.  Many of the most astute schools will agree to this in order to get the transparency they want.  What do you think?

ForProfitEDU would like to extend an exclusive invitation to you to attend The Capital Roundtable’s conference on Private Equity Investing in Education Companies, being held on Thursday, July 21 in New York City.

As a partner, we have the privilege to put your name on our VIP list, allowing you to register for a special rate of $995 — $400 off the standard registration price.

This day-long conference is being chaired by Daniel Black, Managing Partner at Wicks Group of Companies, and features 20 experts.

For registration or inquiries, just call Shaina Mardinly at 212-832-7333 ext. 0, or email her at smardinly@capitalroundtable.com.  Please be sure to mention our name.

For more details, click here:

http://www.capitalroundtablemail.com/masterclass/Capital-Roundtable-Private-Equity-Education-Conference-2011.html?&tag=forprofitedu
I hope to see you on July 21 for what promises to be a great day.

P.S. Since we expect this conference to attract a strong attendance, please register as soon as possible to reserve your seat.

Yesterday the Obama Administration released final regulations requiring career college programs to better prepare students for “gainful employment” or risk losing access to Federal student aid.  Or at least thats how they put it…  Bottom line is that they eased a few caveats of the previous reg’s providing colleges with extended time for implementation, some flexibility on income data sources, interest only or income based payments, and minor changes to debt to income metric.

While this is at least a bit more manageable than the previous reg’s most believe it’s still harmful to many constituents in the lower income and minority segments.  Hopefully this will be a sign and more thought will go into future revisions.

link to the rules on ed.gov: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/gainful-employment-regulations

The winners were announced today for a new fellowship that has sparked heated debate in academic circles for questioning the value of higher education and suggesting that some entrepreneurial students may be better off leaving college.

Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, will pay each of the 24 winners of his Thiel Fellowship $100,000 not to attend college for two years and to develop business ideas instead

Doesn’t this continue to demonstrate that traditional education is not the right choice for everyone?  Career based education & accelerated paced degree programs commonly offered by for profit education firms are more aligned with the needs of many.  Watch and you will see many of the traditional colleges take another page from the for profit schools by offering accelerated programs 3 years for a bachelors, 18 months for an associates…

Good article from the chronicle: http://chronicle.com/article/Thiel-Fellowship-Pays-24/127622/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

A good sign has risen over the last year as many of the nations top for profit colleges make strides in improving their intake mechanisms.  Instead of the previous standard open door policy colleges are now working to ensure a better fit for both the colleges and students best interest.  Assessments are starting to surface as a way for both the students and colleges to learn more about what is best for them.

By taking simple assessments many colleges are learning which programs the students are most motivated to succeed in and thus more likely to graduate, which is the shared goal of the student and institution.  Others are using assessments as a means to uncover weakness areas which need additional support from student services and professors.

Bottom line is that the smarter long term players have understood that now is the time to re-build for the future, while the market is expecting a slowdown anyway.  The result will be long term sustainable growth with better outcomes for all!

The Huffington post recently posted a strikingly negative article about Kaplan.  Link to article is below.  The industry is clearly headline material for tv, print and online articles all unfortunately negative, why cant the industry get some positive press?  Any of us who have actually been to a graduation at a forprofit school can attest to the lives that have been changed as well as the appreciation from the families and friends.   

At Kaplan University, ‘Guerilla Registration’ Leaves Students Deep In Debt

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/22/kaplan-university-guerilla-registration_n_799741.html?page=1