For-Profit, for African-Americans?

Oh, no! You won't be getting a printed SCUP–45 Preliminary Program in the mail this year. Instead, SCUP is going green and regularly updating this digital version (PDF), which you can download at any time.

Check it out! You don't want to miss higher education's premier planning conference, and your one chance this year to assemble with nearly 1,500 of your peers and colleagues: July 10–14, Minneapolis.

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SCUP Link

Could it be entirely coincidental that the federal government's budget adds funds for HBCUs and then the for-profit educational market starts looking more closely at black students - including maybe "partnering" with current HBCUs?

On Thursday, a new venture announced that it will seek to become a for-profit higher education company focused on serving black students. Officials were vague about how they would do so, but acknowledged that they would be seeking one or more partnerships with existing institutions that have accreditation. That has been a popular approach of late with investors who are looking to move into new higher education markets -- since accreditation is easier to hold on to (even with a change of ownership) than to earn from scratch, and accreditation is required for students to receive federal financial aid.

One source familiar with some of the exploratory discussions about Latimer Education, as the new venture is called, said that the goal was to align with a private, financially challenged historically black college. One of Latimer's founders confirmed that working with a black college was one idea under consideration, but he said that other ideas were as well.

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SCUP's Planning Institute: Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers while you engage in one of the three SCUP Planning Institute Steps. In addition to being offered on demand, on campuses to teams of campus leaders, the institute steps are also offered to all professionals at varying times and venues. Currently scheduled are:

• May 22–23, Ann Arbor, MI - Step I
• July 10, Minneapolis, MN - Step I (in conjunction with SCUP–45)
• October 2, Ann Arbor, MI - Step I
• January 21–22, Tuscon, AZ - Step II and Step III

Teach Online or Wither: Leveraging Technology to Increase Enrollment, Capacity, and Revenues

Arthur F. Kirk, president of St. Leo University, writing in University Business magazine: "But you need online courses and online programs. Traditional and non-traditional students increasingly demand—and often require—them. The time may have passed for the "big growth" strategy, but if you want to protect what you have and hopefully grow it, you need to be online, now! Since 2002, online education grew by a compounded annual rate of 19.7 percent. It grew 12.9 percent in 2007, according to Sloan data. During that same period, overall collegiate enrollments grew at a 1.6 percent annual rate . . . What is required? The first component of success is institutional commitment. Far too many schools falter because of vocal pockets of faculty resistance and lack of strong leadership. Smaller private not-for-profit colleges remain the least likely to offer online classes or programs. Yet a majority of them embrace a mission to educate working adults and/or depend upon those students to balance budgets. While chief academic officers generally believe that faculty accept the value and legitimacy of online courses, fewer than half of private college CAOs believe their faculty do so . . . Those opinions ignore mountains of data that demonstrate no differences in learning outcomes between online and classroom courses. They also ignore the National Survey of Student Engagement, in which "distance education" students reported being more engaged than traditional students. Negative faculty opinions run counter to those of business leaders. According to Excelsior College/Zogby International's online survey of business executives, among those familiar with online programs, '83 percent strongly believe that degrees earned via online programs are viewed favorably compared with those earned in a more traditional way.'

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

Florida's Statewide Career University Is All Over the Map

An interesting, very brief interview with Belinda Keiser, Vice Chancellor of Keiser University, by Jeff Wendt of Today's Campus:

Surprise our readers with your four most recent locations.
We have 100 bachelors students in Shanghai co-located with the Hong Kong Institute of Business and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We have 50 students in the European Republic of Moldova, some of whom are pursuing MBAs. We also have 30 business degree students in Singapore. And, in Port St. Lucie, Florida we've just opened the Keiser University College of Golf.

Buying Low: Are the Proprietary Colleges Swooping' In?

Some of the best stuff being written in the higher ed world right is coming from bloggers. Here's a recent installment from the "Confessions of a Community College Dean" blog in Inside Higher Ed:

Apparently, the proprietary colleges are in the midst of another of their periodic booms, swooping in and grabbing students just when the public sector is reeling from yet another round of budget cuts.

I’ve seen this movie.

As regular readers know, I used to work for a proprietary. You’ve heard of it.

I’d be both more and less worried than the IHE story suggests.

The worrisome part of the return of the proprietaries is that, unlike the public sector, their income rises and falls with enrollments. This means they’re immune to the double-bind the public colleges routinely experience during recessions, when enrollments go up but funding goes down. This Fall my cc is experiencing the highest enrollments in its history, and applications for the Spring are even higher than that; at the exact same time, our operating funding is crashing. Say what you want about ‘administrators’ – I defy anybody to make that math work without pain. It’s one thing to do more with less, and another to perform alchemy.

For the DeVry’s and Phoenixes of the world, though, higher enrollments automatically equate to higher revenues. This means they can add capacity when it makes sense. In times like these, I envy them that.

For-Profit Universities in the Political Economy of Higher Education

This worthy read by Brian Pusser is from International Higher Education and is a concise brief of the state of the relationship of for-profits and and traditional institutions in the current American political framework:

Can states preserve regulations that protect the public and private benefits of higher education while satisfying the profit demands of an evolving postsecondary market? As with most political contests, much will depend on the ability of a variety of postsecondary stakeholders to become involved in the political arena shaping higher education. Future research on the tension between states and markets will benefit from turning attention to the evolving balance of political legitimacy, lobbying, and policy challenges evidenced in the rise of for-profit degree-granting colleges and universities.

Area Career and Technical Colleges Head to Head with Community Colleges?

The Career College Association (CCA) is essentially the trade association for for-profit technical institutions. It has more than a thousand members and described itself as "The Career College Association is a voluntary membership organization of accredited, private, postsecondary schools, institutes, colleges and universities that provide career-specific educational programs." Its new white paper: Higher Education and a Competitive Workforce is "must" reading for those who would understand where these for-profit institutions positioning themselves in what seems like a directly competitive battle with community colleges:

Three in four respondents in the CCA survey acknowledge that some young people might benefit more from alternatives to a four-year college or university. When asked to consider options beyond traditional four-year colleges and universities, 45 percent of respondents said career and technical training colleges do the best job of equipping Americans to compete in the global economy.