For-profit Higher Education Institutions Research Articles

Egyptian Universities Search for a New Role

Universities played a central role in Egypt’s 2011 revolution and were heavily affected by the subsequent return to military rule. Egyptian universities have a long history as settings where young activists engage in political action. Today they are institutions with a changing role and scope. The expansion of private, for-profit institutions of higher education over the past decade has called into question the traditional model of public universities with access guaranteed by the state, while campuses have been largely silenced as forums of activism.

Telemedicine services in higher education: a review of college and university websites

Objectives To identify rates of telemedicine provision during the COVID-19 pandemic and predictive institutional factors among 4-year and graduate colleges and universities. Participants The study (n = 364) included the websites (.edu) of accredited public nonprofit, private nonprofit, and private for-profit institutions of higher education in the United States that award bachelors, masters, or doctoral degrees. Methods Using digital content analysis, human coders analyzed institution websites for informational text indicating student telemedicine services. Results Findings indicate that a minority of 4-year and above institutions offer telemedicine access. Institution type, institution size, and the presence of campus student health services were predictive. Endowment size and Minority Serving Institution status were not predictive. Conclusion This study illustrates the ongoing need for increased access to remote health services across higher education, especially among smaller private and public nonprofit colleges and universities and all private for-profit institutions.

THE GROWTH OF PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW IN THE CONTEXT OF LIBERALISATION, PRIVATISATION AND MARKETISATION

<p>Economic policies encouraging private ownership (liberalisation, privatisation and marketisation) have allowed Private Higher Education Institutions (PrHEIs) to proliferate in most parts of the world, particularly since the 1990s. The number of private colleges and universities continues to grow in most countries at a remarkable rate, partly reflecting the demand for greater choice and more flexibility, which PrHEIs are able to offer. In some countries, PrHEIs even outnumber public higher education institutions (PuHEIs) or are at least expected to do so within the next decade. This is particularly the case in emerging and developing countries. The worldwide expansion of private higher education can be illustrated by the fact that one in three students globally is now enrolled in PrHEIs, and there are very few places in the world where public monopolies continue to prevent the emergence of alternative providers from the private sector. In the UK, the Government recognises that private, for-profit higher education institutions, the majority of which award degrees in conjunction with state universities, typically function more efficiently and work harder to improve the student experience. Their appeal among non-traditional students dovetails perfectly with Government rhetoric to make higher education more accessible and widen participation. A legal framework has been created that makes it easier for challenger institutions to enter the market and compete with the public higher education sector. A more streamlined, student-focused approach to the regulation of higher education in the UK is also designed to stimulate further growth and competition in the HE sector, ensuring that private colleges and universities remain a viable alternative to the public sector. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0886/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Professor Smith Goes to Washington: Educational Interest Group Lobbying, 1998–2017

Congressional lobbying by education-related interest groups is an understudied subject in education research. This brief uses congressional lobbying expenditure data from 1998 to 2017 to examine trends in lobbying behavior by labor unions; K–12 education providers; and public, private nonprofit, and for-profit higher education institutions. Education interest groups have spent in excess of $2 billion lobbying Congress since 1998. Higher education institutions represent a disproportionate share of lobbying activity and expenditures, accounting for almost 70% of education-focused interest groups and around 80% of education-related lobbying expenditures. Lobbying expenditures steadily rose until 2011 before rapidly declining. The brief speculates as to the possible reasons for these trends and concludes with a call for greater research on lobbying for education.

Discrepancies Between Labor Market Needs and the System for Choosing a Career Path in Russia

ABSTRACT The article explores the problem of the discrepancies between the careers that the Russian education system currently prepares students for and the needs of the labor market. Employers on the labor market and educational institutions cannot function effectively without an established mechanism for social exchange. However, the reality of the current situation is such that the current educational services market exists almost entirely independently of the labor market. A document-based content analysis has allowed us to identify key problems for the Russian labor market. These include a shortage of certain specialists, which is particularly glaring in certain fields; a high level of youth unemployment; a lack of demand for certain highly trained specializations and thus the inability of the country to effectively compete on the international market; and Russia’s lagging position in the technology field. The education system also faces a number of problems. Some of the most pronounced ones include the brain drain of qualified and talented workers abroad; the insufficient funding of the research community; the decline in the prestige and quality of education; and the development of shallow thought patterns among young people that have resulted from the problem of fragmented culture. All attempts by the state to ease this crisis situation have not moved past creative window dressing. They have avoided addressing the fundamental roots of the problem. Our analysis has revealed a basic discrepancy between the types of subjects that educational institutions currently teach students and the needs of the labor market. Educational institutions have proven themselves unable to flexibly respond to changes on the labor market, and they have ignored its demands. In fact, most Russian schools do not subscribe to a unified system to help children choose a future career path. Schools use a formal approach to providing vocational guidance for young people: At best, students take one-time tests and receive brochures from for-profit institutions of higher education. If a unified, systematic model for career counseling were developed based on a mutually beneficial cooperative relationship, we would be able to establish an effective mechanism for social exchange between educational institutions and the labor market.

The Idea of a “For-Profit” Private Christian University in South Africa

The one-sided focus of Christian higher education in South Africa on the field of theology and the lack of integrating faith and learning in other subjects emphasizes the need for a Christian university in South Africa. The question addressed in this article is whether a Christian university can also be for-profit, considering the fact that all Christian private higher education institutions in South Africa are non-profit. There are numerous criticisms against for-profit higher education institutions. The greatest of these are that for-profit private higher education institutions miss the purpose of what it means to be a university and that profitable higher education institutions exploit students. The church also has numerous criticisms of the profit motive, but from the Bible it is clear that there are two lines of thought regarding profit. The one is that profit is dangerous and that it easily becomes an idol; the other is that people are called to be profitable. This article concludes that there is room for a for-profit Christian higher education institution in South Africa. This for-profit Christian higher education institution should be imagined in terms of its understanding of profit regarding its mission, students, faculty and governance.

The Effect of the Gainful Employment Regulatory Uncertainty on Student Enrollment at For-Profit Institutions of Higher Education

In 2010, the Obama Administration proposed new regulations designed to hold institutions of higher education (IHEs) accountable for student outcomes. I examine the effects of the regulatory uncertainty surrounding these “Gainful Employment” (GE) regulations on enrollment at for-profit IHEs. I utilize informational debt rates of GE institutions along with enrollment data from the integrated postsecondary education data system to employ a difference in difference design that compares enrollment before and after the GE regulatory proposal at for-profit IHEs to enrollment at public and nonprofit IHEs. My results suggest that for-profit IHEs experienced slower enrollment growth relative to public and nonprofit IHEs in the post-GE period. Additionally, enrollment of low-income students appeared to be disproportionately affected by the GE regulatory uncertainty.

Understanding For-Profit Higher Education in the United States Through History, Criticism, and Public Policy: A Brief Sector Landscape Synopsis

Despite their uniquely innovative and long-standing history within the United States higher education landscape, for-profit higher education institutions (FPHEIs) remain controversial academic entities. Criticism of the for-profit sector maintains that these institutions are not preparing students for successful entry into the workforce. In light of numerous recent struggles, sector growth has significantly receded while FPHE practices and policies continue to be questioned. In the wake of sector decline, FPHEIs have an important opportunity to reimagine their role as educational providers to better serve students and society at large. At this critical transitional moment, this article briefly reviews the literature surrounding the overall FPHE landscape to date in terms of the historical background of the sector, criticisms leveled against FPHE, and important public policies surrounding the for-profit sector. Gaps in the FPHE landscape literature are noted and suggestions for additional sector research are offered with respect to generating future scholarship that may be useful when (re)considering the role that FPHEIs might assume going forward.

Widening access to higher education for low-income students: a Brazilian case study (1990s-2016)

ABSTRACT This article analyses the widening access policies implemented by Brazil during the 1990s and in 2016. It cites and evaluates the different strategies used by the government, such as student loans, needs-based and race-based quotas. In the context of a highly privatized sector, in which for-profit higher education institutions account for over half of the existing higher education institutions in Brazil, the results display a relative growth in higher education access based on minorities and needs-based communities. However, it also showcases some trends not achieved as originally planned by the government (specially increasing higher education participation in regions other than the south and the southeast) and serves as a point requiring further research to evaluate the influence on the lives of students and graduates. This study uses government and publicly available sources to analyse the impact of this strategy over time.

Student views regarding online freshmen physics courses

Background: Nationally, many public universities have started to move into the online course and program market that was previously associated with for-profit institutions of higher education. Public university administrators state that students seek the flexibility of online courses. But do students want to take courses online, especially freshmen-level science courses perceived to be difficult?Purpose: This study investigated student views related to the potential of a physics course they were currently enrolled in being offered online.Sample: This study took place at a large, public, mid-western university and involved students enrolled in either the first or second semester of a face-to-face flipped physics course for engineering technology majors.Design and methods: Discussions with students during the semester about their online course experiences and expectations were used to develop the concourse and subsequently the Q sample to perform a Q methodology study about students’ views regarding taking physics courses online. Additional statements for the concourse and Q sample were taken from communications with administrators at the university. In this way, the statements sorted by the students included those from students and those from administrators. Factor analysis of the Q sorts resulted in three factors, each representing a unique perspective. Interpretations of these perspectives included the analyses of the Q sorts, the researcher’s interactions with students and administrators, and students’ written responses regarding their previous online course experiences and their sorting decisions.Results: Three unique student views emerged were named: keeping it real and face-to-face, Online could be ok depending upon the course and instructor, and Online not for STEM classes. Consensus among the views is also discussed.Conclusions: Overall, students’ views are negative concerning having physics courses, including labs, online and those views conflict with statements expressed by administrators regarding students’ desires for online courses at the university.

Organizational resilience and enrollment trends of independent, for-profit higher education institutions.

From 2010 to 2012, the for-profit sector of higher education in the United States (otherwise known as career colleges) existed in a turbulent environment, characterized by regulatory, media, and public scrutiny. While virtually all career colleges experienced enrollment declines during this period, by 2012 some colleges were starting to see this trend stabilize or reverse, whereas others did not. The purpose of this study was to determine if the differences in career colleges' enrollment trends could be attributed to organizational resilience. A quantitative correlation study using a multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the nature of the relationship between organizational resilience and the enrollment fluctuations of 59 career colleges located throughout the United States. The correlation between organizational resilience levels and enrollment fluctuations was fair to moderate and significant, r = 0.40, p < 0.05. A multiple-regression analysis revealed that the model significantly explained the impact of the six organizational resilience factors on enrollment fluctuations, F = 4.15, p < 0.01. The R2 for the model was 0.32, and the adjusted R2 was 0.25. In terms of individual organizational resilience factors, two tested either significantly or moderately significantly: avoidance-skepticism and critical understanding or sensemaking. Recommendations for college leaders include monitoring the level of avoidance to ensure a healthy balance of skepticism regarding new situations and incorporating strategies to help organizational members increase their levels of critical understanding or sensemaking.

Students’ Views About Potentially Offering Physics Courses Online

Nationally, many public universities have started to move into the online course and program market that is most often associated with for-profit institutions of higher education. Administrators in public universities make statements regarding benefits to students’ desire for flexibility and profit margins related to online courses. But do students attending a large public university want to take courses online especially science courses perceived to be difficult such as freshmen-level physics courses? This study took place at a large, public, Midwestern university and involved students enrolled in the first semester of a face-to-face, flipped physics course for engineering technology majors. Statements were collected from comments about online courses made by the university’s administration and students in the course. Twenty students sorted 45 statements. Two student views emerged with one rejecting online courses in general and the other primarily rejecting online math, science, and technology courses, including physics. Students’ descriptions of their previous online course experiences were used to inform the analyses and to assist in describing the two views that emerged in conjunction with the distinguishing statements. Consensus among the two views is also discussed. Overall, the results indicate a potential divergence between student views and what university administrators believe students want.

INSTITUIÇÕES DE ENSINO SUPERIOR COMUNITÁRIAS: QUESTÕES ATUAIS

Since 2010, the Brazilian communitarian institutions for higher education are not included officially under this designation in the INEP’s microdata, with the extinction of the category “communitarian, religious and philanthropic”. Since then, the Brazilian private’s higher education institutions are classified according to their legal nature: for-profit or non-profit. Nevertheless, the new law 12.881 of 2013, enacted in November 2013, has changed this reality after the approval by the National Congress, establishing the definition and purpose of the Community institutions, and confirming, in particular, their characteristics of non-profit institutions belonging to civil society, and their organization into associations or foundations (BRAZIL, 2013). The recent expansion of the federal and for-profit higher education institutions has directly affected the so far called communitarian institutions, which present differentiated characteristics compared to forprofit private higher education institutions as well as public education. In this article, data and contemporary aspects related to the new scenario of Brazilian higher education are analyzed, with special focus on higher education institutions members of the Association of Community Universities (ABRUC), and were found better performance of these ones in comparison to the private for-profit higher education institutions. The obtained results, combined with the regional impact of the communitarian higher education institutions, justify the importance of these institutions to improve the consolidation of higher education in Brazil.

The Impact of the Higher Education Regulatory Environment on For-Profit Higher Education Institutions

The Impact of the Higher Education Regulatory Environment on For-Profit Higher Education Institutions

The Role of For-Profit Colleges in Increasing Postsecondary Completions

DOI 10.1515/cjpp-2012-0010 Calif. J. Politics Policy 2012; 4(2): 140–160 Research Article Su Jin Jez* The Role of For-Profit Colleges in Increasing Postsecondary Completions Abstract: For-profit institutions of higher education have been in the hot seat for their recruiting practices and questions of quality have reached a crescendo. Still, a large number of students are attending these colleges. For-profits enroll a more diverse student population than any other higher education sector in California, including the community colleges, and about half of their students receive Pell Grants – a smaller proportion than non-profits, and a number similar to the Uni- versity of California system. Not only are many students attending for-profits, but a large number of them are graduating from these institutions. I found that in 2010, more than 20% of the long-term certificates, associates and bachelor’s degrees were awarded by a for-profit institution. These certificates and degrees focus on career-related fields, such as health sciences, and few are in the tra- ditional liberal arts, such as the humanities, math, or social sciences. As state- level policy conversations in higher education focus on outcomes and increasing educational attainment rates, they must include for-profit institutions in strategic planning. While there may be much to be critical of regarding for-profits, they still educate a huge number of students, and these numbers are only growing. Keywords: For-Profit Colleges; higher education policy; state-level policy *Corresponding author: Su Jin Jez, Department of Public Policy & Administration, California State University, Sacramento, CA, USA, e-mail: jez@csus.edu 1 Introduction President Barack Obama has called for the USA to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 (Obama 2009). To achieve this goal, about 60% of young Americans would need a college degree (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2010). Thirty-eight percent of young Californians have a postsecondary degree (“American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample” 2009), and if current trends continue, this figure would reach 40% by

Expansion vs. Quality: Emerging Issues of For-Profit Private Higher Education Institutions in Ethiopia

Private for-profit higher education has been rapidly expanding in developing countries worldwide since the early 1990s. This global trend has been particularly evident in Ethiopia, where only three public universities existed until 1996. By 2005, about 60 private for-profit higher education institutions had been founded in Ethiopia. This has led to mixed feelings among the Ethiopian public. While some laud the opportunities and advantages these new institutions bring, others are apprehensive that the quality of education might be compromised by an expansion motivated by monetary gain. This article sheds light on these paradoxes and provides suggestions for policy and practices.

The Changing Landscape of the Academic Profession: The Culture of Faculty at For-Profit Colleges and Universities (review)

Changing Landscape of the Academic Profession: Culture of Faculty at For-Profit Colleges and Universities, by Vicente M. Lechuga. New York: Routledge, 2006. 176 pp. ISBN 0-415-97699-5. It was once commonly understood that a member was a person with extensive formal knowledge and expertise, who had considerable autonomy in his or her job, had a role in institutional governance, and fulfilled three roles (i.e., teaching, research, and service). Now that definition fails to describe many faculty. Similarly, the term no longer has much meaning outside the context of each particular institution. previous commonalities of position and academic culture among the professoriate, at least in the United States, have greatly diminished. This is partly due to the much discussed and written about decline in state funding to public institutions. Public institutions reexamining faculty roles and work conditions to find ways both to decrease the costs of faculty and to enable faculty to generate more money, thus replacing decreased public funding. Another less understood influence has been the enormous growth in for-profit institutions of higher education (IHEs). These institutions have defined the faculty role very differently from the traditional definition. Much less is known about the roles and lives of faculty in these institutions and the impact of their work conditions on the larger definition of the professoriate. In this book, Vicente M. Lechuga provides unique insights into the work life of faculty at these institutions. book is based on the author's case study of four for-profit IHEs: two publicly traded institutions and two privately held institutions. Lechuga writes, The underlying assumption of the study is based on the belief that two key factors influence faculty work and faculty culture at for-profit higher education institutions--the nature of the institution as a profit-making entity and faculty members' status as contingent employees (p. 14). Faculty at the four institutions were studied in depth via a qualitative approach involving document review and hour-long interviews with a total of 51 faculty (21 part-time, 30 full-time) in six fields: business, education, information technology/communications, health sciences, social sciences, and general education. Lechuga emphasizes that he is neither bemoaning nor celebrating the rise of for-profit colleges and universities but rather wants to illuminate our understanding of them. This book begins by describing the changes higher education is undergoing as a result of the tremendous growth of for-profit IHEs. These institutions are redefining the academy by treating education as a commodity, offering programs that focus specifically on job training, and exclusively employing contingent faculty members (p. 8). rise of for-profit IHEs has been astounding. In the late 1980s, only 19% of the two-year IHEs and 3% of the four-year IHEs were for-profit. By the late 1990s, only a decade later, these percentages had changed to 28% and 8%, respectively. Concurrently, the regard of for-profit IHEs has risen as they have increasingly become nationally and/or regionally accredited and have begun to offer programs similar to those in traditional IHEs. However, important features distinguish for-profit IHEs from traditional IHEs. Paramount is the belief that higher education is a private rather than a public good. For-profit IHEs emphasize specific job skills and increased competitiveness in the job market as the major benefit of higher education, rather than the development of broader skills necessary for critical thinking and citizenship in a democracy. …

Dimensions of Corporate Ownership in For-Profit Higher Education

The recent growth of for-profit higher education has been marked by the rising importance of institutional ownership by publicly traded corporations. This paper looks at 13 publicly traded corporations that own degree-granting for-profit institutions of higher education in the United States, examining corporate growth strategies and their distinctiveness as Wall Street-owned institutions. The paper concludes that these institutions are different from their independently owned peers and that corporate growth strategies suggest the importance of foreign expansion.

Trends and Issues in Distance Education: International Perspectives (review)

Reviewed by: Trends and Issues in Distance Education: International Perspectives Jennifer Glennie (bio) Yusra Laila Visser, Lya Visser, Michael Simonson, and Ray Amirault (Eds.). Trends and Issues in Distance Education: International Perspectives. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, 2005. 315 pp. Paper: $34.95. ISBN: 1-59311-212-2. This collection brings together contributions from 24 authors from five continents and covers a wide range of distance education themes. It has four parts: 1. Five distinct perspectives on global trends and issues in distance education. 2. Four interviews with leaders in the field: Otto Peters, Don Ely, Barbara Spronk, and Robert Morgan. 3. Eight carefully contextualised case studies speaking to the successes and shortcomings of distance education in various regions of the world. 4. Three chapters on design and development trends for international distance education. In their introduction, the editors certainly raise expectations. "There remains little question that there is a growing base of intellectual capital within the field that desperately requires collection and codification," they assert (p. ix). Furthermore they comment that the field itself has not always been successful in offering an integrated representation of the experiences of distance educators around the world and that, when it has, such perspectives have "seldom been analysed from the standpoint of the state of the discipline per se" (p. x). However, they see the book's purpose as the more modest one of contributing to this discipline "by presenting international perspectives on the state of the field, and by exploring specific current trends and issues faced by the distance learning community" (p. x). [End Page 73] What is considered to be a trend or an issue? The interview with Don Ely focuses on a definition: a trend is "a line of general direction of movement and a prevailing tendency or inclination. The general movement over a course of time of a statistically detectable change" (p. 84). Ely further notes that current and emerging trends should be international. An issue is seen as "a burning question that people are trying to resolve in some way" (p. 87). Two chapters concentrate on itemising trends: Peters's interview looks at trends that bear on higher education and distance education, namely the pressure on funds for higher education, with distance education seen as an attractive cost-cutting mechanism; the rise in for-profit higher education institutions; the interesting perception that traditional institutions are becoming more like distance education institutions and not vice versa; that academic accountability is increasing but without the necessary accompanying training; and the resistance by some faculty to online course delivery. He also claims that the very nature of scientific knowledge will not remain the same because of developments in digitized learning. Discussion of these trends, however, is left to a minimum, and the reader is referred to his Distance Education in Transition: New Trends and Challenges (2003). In a similar vein, Brent G. Wilson in Chapter 1 lists the following as key trends in education with implications for distance education: "technologizing" school systems, learner and user-centred philosophies, moves to automate instructional design, the digital shift and advances in information technologies, the global marketplace, radical forces inspired by global connectivity, and changing paradigms of thought in instructional design. He then writes tantalizingly brief, descriptive paragraphs on each theme, raising but not exploring contentious claims such as "the shift to online learning . . . creates new economies of scale" (p. 13). More satisfyingly, Visser explores themes related to distance education's contribution to the overall improvement of the human condition through developing the learning capacity of the world's people. Along with other authors in the collection (Dodds, Day, Muriel Visser-Valfrey, et al.), he laments the unfulfilled promise of distance education, especially insofar as distance educators have sought to transfer "found solutions" from one context to another and the extent to which they have emulated face-to-face practices rather than concentrating on "creating the best conditions for human learning" (p. 40). He bemoans what he sees as an overemphasis on cost-effectiveness in distance education and worries about the commodification of education, where, borrowing from Sfard, acquisition rather than participation becomes the metaphor (p. 42). Dodds, in a chapter concentrating on developing countries...

Do Costs Differ Between For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Producers of Higher Education?

In theory, not-for-profit organizations will be characterized by higher production costs per unit of output than for-profit producers of otherwise-identical goods/services, since profit maximization implies cost minimization per unit of output; breaking even does not imply cost minimization and, indeed, may imply inflated costs. We explore the empirical validity of this hypothesis in the context of higher education. Using 1996 data, we estimate multiproduct cost functions for 1,450 public, 1,316 private, not-for-profit, and 176 private, for-profit institutions of higher education in the United States. We fail to find a statistically significant difference between for-profit and not-for-profit private providers, but do find a statistically significant difference between private, not-for-profit institutions and public institutions.