For-profit education
As with any business industry, the education industry is one big and diversified with multiple options ranging from publicly own Universities, private nonprofit colleges to for-profit schools. Today I am going to talk about specifically about for-profit educations. What is for-profit education? what type of product and service do they serve and served? who are the biggest players and how do they affect the industry? what are the methods used.? What are the barrier to entry and exit? and last profitability. A brief history of For-profit education. For-profit education can be traced back to the time of the founding fathers. In fact, Benjamin Franklin was a big advocate of For-profit schools. According to the American
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According to the ProPublica “96 percent of those enrolled in for-profit schools who take out student loans” while only “57 percent of those enrolled in four-year private, non-profit colleges who take out student loans (Lee).” Yes, one might be able to argue that For-profit education serves student neglected by public universities and private nonprofit school and offer classes at the students’ convenience and most will go as far as to even promise students they can earn so and so degree at the comforts of your pajamas and sandal or juggling kids and work. But at what cost? Not at the expense of high loan and higher than average tuition with little to no prospect of finding future …show more content…
One of the many competitive practices is used by the For-profit firms is buying air on TVs, radio, social media and printed ads and billboards along highways and freeways. They use technology to stay ahead and stay competitive. In addition, for-profit colleges and universities geography as a point of advantage and strategic choice to build campuses near or by a major highway. Today if you drive along any U.S. highway Route. I can assure you will see more than three for-profit school building such as university of Phoenix, DeVry, Everest or any other For-profit colleges. That is not coincidental decision rather it is a deliberate one for advertisement and to catch more eye balls. And drive home and turn on the TV you will see an advertisement every five minutes with insanely convincing graphics and very enticing ads telling you can earn a such and such degree at the comforts of your home. Online or in class whatever suits your need. All if not most For-profit colleges are located across the border of the states which is another point of advantage. According to The Atlantic
"There’s a significant increase in competition in the marketplace, you’re seeing more non-profits and state schools expand their mission beyond where they’ve traditionally been," says Mark Brenner, chief of staff for Apollo Education Group, the company that owns
What stands out about American universities today? Is it the academic opportunities offered to students, experienced faculty, or strong sense of community? Or...perhaps they have lost their focus. It is not uncommon for universities to focus their efforts and budgets elsewhere; by building state of the art gyms, for example, remodeling luxury dorms, grooming campuses, or creating more management positions. College students and professors alike are subject to the nationally occurring changes in higher level education. Colleges are becoming commercialized and tuition is rising, but is the quality of education improving? In “Why We Should Fear University, Inc.”, Fredrik DeBoer is able to provide a personal take on the issue of corporate domination
College is marketed towards students as an essential part of building a successful future. The United States “sells college” to those who are willing to buy into the business (Lee 671). With the massive amounts of student debts acquired every year, and the rising costs of
The advertisements are everywhere -- on local television stations it is Everest Institute, or Brown Mackie College. On South Florida highway billboards, it is the University of Phoenix. All are selling a quick, convenient college education, and the dream of a better life. In this economy, people are buying, and in the process the schools -- built to make a profit -- are thriving. What is less clear, though, is how much students actually benefit. For-profit colleges, many with night classes and entire degree programs available online, are built to fit seamlessly into the busy life of a working adult.
According to Trade Schools, Colleges and Universities “Many of America's top-performing high school students never apply to the most challenging colleges and universities even though they have the ability to succeed at them. They often come from minority and low-income households and end up pursuing more affordable, less-selective schools instead.” College can be a burden to many students in a variety of different ways, but the most common reason is due to funds. Making college free for students will help this problem by increasing jobs in the work industry that require degrees, they should be affordable to all people at all cost, as well as the funds should be completely cut off because it would increase jobs and help America's economy grow.
There is no doubt that college is expensive, price tags for some universities go over a quarter of a million for just a bachelors degree! (That’s if you graduate in four too). The extravagant price for college is no doubt crazy. Trying to better yourself and your future shouldn’t cost $250,000 plus. If public universities were to be free a plethora of problems could be solved instantly. According to Forbes the National student loan debt has surpassed 1.2 trillion dollars (Denhart )! This number is growing exponentially as more students enroll in to college. Why question then whether college should be free? Well, this number is the total amount of student loan debt from all students that have exited college. Some of these students are freshly graduated while some are aged with the wisdom trying to pay their loans back. If public universities were to be free and funded by our federal government, our government would pay this amount within ten years. Relatively a short amount of time considering that the student loan debt is an accumulation debt from students that have graduated more than ten year ago, also this also greatly increase with the following years as well.
The documentary Starving the Beast is about the current fight going on regarding public higher education in America. The film explains that there has been a shift in how higher education is viewed. It has gone from being viewed as investment in citizens and the future of America as a “public good” to something students themselves must buy into as consumer like any other good or service. It goes on to explore the decline in funding for public universities and the ideological divide that is causing it. One side believes that public universities are something worthwhile for states to invest in because makes it easier for students to attend school, therefore increasing their own worth and ability to contribute to their states' economies.
Odden et al. note that their analysis of spending patterns across the 50 states is supported by the conclusions reached by the Finance Center of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), although the results of their research did diverge in some significant ways. Odden et al. examined spending and staffing patterns at the district and school levels. They also scrutinized staffing patterns of expenditures by function and program and spending across curriculum content areas in California, Florida and New York. Their major conclusion was that while there had been considerable national investment in public education during the 20th century, as a rule the funds were distributed unfairly and used ineffectively.
Students who are at a higher risk of dropping out, are the ones who most likely have a hard time payback the loans. According to the report Investing in Higher Education, “The largest increases occurred among lower income and older, independent students who largely attended for-profit and community colleges” (Council of Economic Advisers, 4). They are
Proper school funding is one of the keys to having a successful school. Americans believe that funding is the biggest problem in public schools. School improvements revolve around funding. There needs to be funding not only in the successful schools but also the schools that aren’t doing as well. In documentary, Waiting for Superman, it talks about how smaller class sizes will help students. Funding is what will help the smaller class sizes. State funding mechanisms are subject to intense political and economic scrutiny (Leonard). Studies have shown that funding is inversely related to accreditation levels (Leonard). School funding needs to be increased, but there must be accountability as well.
As higher education becomes more corporatized, the students of these institutions are no longer viewed as merely students, and instead are now viewed as consumers. This role change shifts the focus of educational institutions from the education that these students are seeking to the focus of what they can have these consumers
Initially, educational partnerships were created by school system staff to "foster school-community cooperation, provide incentives for students, supplement curriculum and staff, and obtain equipment" (Clark 1992, p. 2). Business gains from these relationships were primarily in improved public relations and enhanced community image (Grobe et al. 1993). In the early 1980s, school reform reports called for changes that would ultimately transform the nature of education and business partnerships. Schools were faced with the need for educational reform measures that would better prepare a diverse student population for the higher order thinking and reasoning skills required in an increasingly knowledge-based, service-driven economy. Businesses were faced with the threat of an inadequately prepared work force that would jeopardize their competition with other industrialized nations. Motivated to improve the academic and technical skills of the future work force, businesses and schools joined in partnerships of various sizes and types to achieve their common and separate goals.
The latest move toward marketization, according to Judson and Taylor (2014), can be largely attributed to historical political foundations which caused an increase in focus on personalization in teaching methods. The political pressures have increased across the US in relation to how education is usually funded (Judson & Taylor, 2011). While the public increasingly continues to support the educational empowerment, academic institutions (both colleges and high schools) find themselves engaging in competition to ensure they enroll numerous students who in turn fund their operating expenses (Judson & Taylor, 2014). Since the financial sources have changed from the support by the public to use of tuition fees, most institutions use marketing strategies that are aligned with provision of more satisfactory student experiences that guarantee, in turn, high retention and graduation rates (Natale & Doran, 2012; Cucchiara et al, 2011; Lundahl et al,
"This House Believes University Education Should Be Free." Idebate.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Universities have been established to provide higher quality education to those who want to pursue their dreams and their choice of career, or expand their knowledge. Universities therefore provide positive externalities, or influences, which can benefit everyone in society. Also, education is a merit good that is under-provided as those who consume education do not consider the long term benefits that education provides, such as higher-paid jobs, but rather the short-term benefits possibly because of lack of information or knowledge of what higher education can provide. There are many ways to provide financial resources for universities, such as tuition fees, subsidies, donations and aids, and selling research, to name a few. Fees can be quite
Commercialization in education is not totally wrong, sometimes it is needed to support the process of education. But, when the education is used as a tool to achieve profit as the ultimate goal, the essence of the educational process will no longer be perceived and delivered to learners. Higher education is not supposed to be a commodity, it is a human right. Commercialization in a university could be a threat to future education process. Both government and educational experts are responsible to reduce this threat, then university will still become a place to obtain a higher quality of