… but apparently the next issue of Consumer’s Digest will feature an attack on for-profit universities.
For-profit online universities represent a $6.2 billion industry with some 620,000 students as of fall 2008. Because of questionable oversight by the federal government, some of these “institutions,” such as Kaplan University and University of Phoenix, are able to skirt requirements of the Title IV student-assistance program that is part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, and thus, mostly taxpayer money is filling the coffers of these companies. The transgressors often use high-pressure tactics to mislead individuals regarding the value of a degree and the costs involved in working toward that degree. Many potential students are deceived about the transferability of credits earned elsewhere. Allegedly, instructors are pressured to inflate students’ grades to keep them enrolled and the financial aid flowing in — and are rewarded for doing so. For students, all of this can result in subpar coursework, insufficient job training and a degree that is devalued by employers — a complete waste of a student’s time and money…
No surprises here, if you’ve been keeping up with your University Diaries reading.
Remember this song I wrote?
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:54PM
Thanks for the link! A worthy endeavor for CR. – TL