In the News "Fraudulent... deceptive..."

I was really hoping there would be some sort of relief by those who had their opportunity wasted and profited from. What can I do about this?? It's crooked!

This is awful, but what do you expect when the incentives for education are re-aligned from university posterity, prestige, and institutionality (if you will), to profit.

I disagree somewhat with Mr. Moffitt above in that we cannot hold the diploma mills responsible for the decline of legitimate higher education institutions. I do not doubt that they would love to disclaim responsibility for their own decline as well, but I see no compelling reason for Ivy League schools or otherwise to follow the example of for-profit institutions. Many institutions (Ivy League especially) have coffers so large they could opt to stop charging tuition today, forever.

And so we see the perverse incentives and inherent immorality that surround all business, not just for-profit education. The product is utterly immaterial, whether it is a Baccalaureate's diploma, or a cell phone, or some other little plastic widget - profit is the sole motivator, never the desire for a better widget. It is not uncommon, indeed the norm, for the best product overall to be slaughtered in business by those with the largest profits who can spend more money on marketing and advertising.

Here lies the real threat to the universities: complacency. As long as they sit on their hands and do not call this a problem, other universities can easily be painted with the same money-motivation brush, except it's shaking down alums and a million little fees for campus life instead of the quick paycheck on the way in. Good luck, America! I don't think we're going to dodge this bullet.

TusconJim I don't think you really understand how higher education works. You make it sound like Colleges and Universities are being squeezed by not being able to charge more, this is in fact untrue. While some Ivy leagues are opting to provide an almost free education due to their massive endowments. Most private and public institutions are actually raising tuition. My private university was 32,000 per year, now it 36,000 and tuition does not include all the fees. My total tuition is 42,000. Where are you getting your information?

I almost went to CTU online, but decided not to when the admissions rep was pushing me to apply. The admissions rep told me there was no employment guarantee and then she said my salary would be higher than the dept. of labor said that raised a red flag for me. I checked the graduation rates for the most well-known for profit schools, most are posted as unknown. This more than anything made me discontinue my interest in online schools. Above all the cost of tuition is too expensive. I feel the government should do something about this problem. I don't see how you can get the real world experience by being in front of a computer screen. O and Tchadensis fyi, the cost for your total tuition is half of what mine would've been.

I currently work for a "for-profit" university and there are some practices that require immediate attention from federal government. I think most people blame the un-ethical admission advisors but for the most part the advisors don't make any bonuses on how many people they enroll. However; managments do make bonuses based on the admission advisors performance. So they in turn put great deal of pressure on advisors to meet or exceed thier budgets. If for example i don't hit my weekly run rate or monthly run rate and start budget. i will have at first a verbal warning then a written and the third offense can lead to termination. In addition the process of admitting students to the school are just focused on head counts. They never care if students have the capability to be sucessful in the program or have the means to pay for the tuition. Most of the students are not aware of how the loans or interest rates work and they end up with loans with an interest rates as high as 16%. Yes 16% these loans are made to students until recently at my campus they called it a recourse loan. Any person with elementary understanding of loans knows recourse loans bind the lender to a greater deal of scrutiny and lenders can garnish your wages if you fail to make payments toward your principal. We are basically enrolling new students to cover for the students that drop out each quarter. The retention rate is horrific because these students don't have the necessary skills or support on campus to be successful in finishing the program. The new trend has been to cut cost in hiring fewer faculty and putting a majority of the classes offered online. This allows the schools to spend less on faculty but also can enroll more students each quarter since they don't need physical classroom to teach these students in. The process is a joke and i'm ashamed to have participated in this practice in order to earn a living.

I am currently a student at a for-profit university, and completed two years at a state university as well. To be honest, the academic work at the for-profit university is just as difficult if not more.

Also, do not forget that most of these institutions are accredited regionally and nationally by independent organizations, just like "traditional institutions."

And for all those who are asserting that online-classes are not as rewarding, I would ask you to attend a public university in California as an undergraduate student. Your professor does not know your name, office hours are a joke, and some professors with tenure hold no authority in their respected field, due to the fact that no matter how incompetent the professor is he or she cannot be terminated.

Finally, as Americans we should always favor private enterprise. Our public education system is not working, too many students are denied the opportunity to further their education, educators are protected with unions and tenured and how are students protected? Large classes, forced to take abstract classes, no personal attention. The private sector can fill this void.

Like many people, I graduated from High School and went to a brick and mortar Catholic university for my Bachelors of Arts degree. I attended 120+ credit hours of lectures, exams and wrote to many numerous papers to remember. My non-profit university facility was more focused on writing books/articles and saving their own positions then the student’s ability to learn the material. Research was the focus and getting those Government grants. It was as an assembly line to get the paying customer (students) through the system. After graduating, I took a hiatus from academics and focused on my career. With my BA, I taught part time for a non-profit community college for 7 years. The perspective was different, we were taught to focus on helping to get grants and other funding. The focus was about 50% on the student. After 10 years, after my undergraduate degree I looked for an accredited ground based/online school to obtain my MBA. As a consumer of education, I did my research and found the school that fitted my needs as a full time government employee. I made sure that it was accredited by more than 1 organization and recognized by the Department of Education. In my case, the non-profit schools were not conducive to my schedule and did not afford the flexibility of a ground based/online school. I took 13 classes online for my MBA degree and obtained my degree. I found that the teaching was student focused and projects were more rigorous then a traditional ground based school. It challenged me not only to learn the theory but to know how to practical apply it to at the job. I think that non-profit schools need to learn from the credible for profit schools. Profit schools are serving a need in the market place for busy working adults that cannot quit their positions and responsibilities to carry the yoke of live part time or full time classes. Non-profit schools realizing the value of this method of education are not developing courses and programs that are 100% online like Texas A&M University. I hope that both can learn from each other to provide students with the best education possible. For now I am going online, increasing my knowledge and going with ground based/online school’s for my education. In fact, I plan to go for my Doctor of Business degree online in the near future.

A national for-profit University in my community is known for accepting students who do not have a high school diploma. They say that they will help the student get their G.E.D. while they also begin college courses. The students sign up for student loans. The University gets their money and the students I meet dropped out of school (or dismissed for failing grades) and now are in deep trouble with the loans.

How can this be permitted? How can the University admit students without a H.S. diploma? The University is one of those that you highlighted where the nursing graduates could not get jobs.

Thank you for this valuable report. I work in an employment and training capacity and we have had several of our participants inquire and enroll in various private for profit schools in the Minnesota area. While I believe, all universities and community colleges are in it for profit, these private on-line colleges and others have taken it too far. A few of the "for profit" colleges require the student to sign a contract stating they will be financially responsible for the entire course, whether they complete or not. Most credible colleges and universities will allow a student a certain period to withdraw for whatever reason. We had one student approximately ten years ago,"sign on the dotted line" and was told that she would be making $20-$25 an hour upon completion of a medical assistant program at a local for profit school. We knew that wasn't true, as licensed practical nurses don't even make that much. Due to the high turnover rate for instructors at that particular school, she graduated after 2 1/2 years (would have been one year at a community college) and probably close to $30,000 in debt of students loans, above and beyond what she received in PELL, State and Tribal grants. She finally got a job, paying about $12 an hour. To this date, she is still paying her debt. While every person has their choice of what school to attend, I would hope every student would take the time to research the school, cost and job outlook before signing anything. After all it's like shopping for any other major purchase in your life. Being in default of a student loan could ruin your credit and prevent you from getting certain jobs.

As has been stated, it's unfair to blame the for-profits since we don't blame a cat for torturing a mouse before eating it. The job description of the cat and the job description of the non-profit is part of their intrinsic nature; the cat to torture mice and the for-profit to make money.

I am somewhat puzzled as my son was admitted thru having certain grades to lets say Rochester University. His particular course fees were $20,000 per year for 4 years, plus some additional credits at the nearby school of music
He had campus accomodation for a couple of years and then own rented.
The fundamental question is why is a for profit organisation therefore worse than a state or other university that charges, gosh there is a huge book that rates all the national universities.
The issue is two fold:-
1) Why cant you get into a state or national university?
2) If you failed because your academics did not match OK i got it... but you can try again and try to improve grades.
3) If not these guys (for profits) can give you a place because you pay and in theory it is more expensive... they will tell what you want to hear to get you in.
The solution is to set minimum grade standards to stop you in effect wasting your money for a degree that no future employer will respect anyway
4)Why do I know this? I found out the hard way, I did a so called cheap Correspondence college course to gain a professional qualification. I never went to University, it took me 3 years longer than the Normal BSc at university then the 3years sort of tenure ship within the profession and you study in your own time to complete the societies exams.Every time I got interviews, I got the third degree of was my Qualification valid.Never mind references etc
Is it worth the cost of non entity degree. Do the job and prove yourself.
Regards,
Hodgson.