Congressional Boost 4 Online Colleges

"It took just a few paragraphs in a budget bill for Congress to open a new frontier in education: Colleges will no longer be required to deliver at least half their courses on a campus instead of online to qualify for federal student aid.

"That change is expected to be of enormous value to the commercial education industry. Although both for-profit colleges and traditional ones have expanded their Internet and online offerings in recent years, only a few dozen universities are fully Internet-based, and most of them are for-profit ones..."

Complete NY Times story can be found
here.

 

Does this positively impact DETC schools?

 

Another step towards online education.

 

This is good as it means places like Grantham University which has been around for 50 years or so will finally be able to grant federal aid even though they are only DETC accredited.

 

VE Day?

We weren't exactly popping champagne corks and kissing strangers in the street today, but this was taken as extremely good news among my online colleagues.

Now, you can start a program using nothing-but-net, go for DETC accreditation and have access to Title IV funding, while you wait out your two years, before you are eligible for NCA accreditation.

Gentlemen, start your spreadsheets!

 

Re: "It took just a few paragraphs in a budget bill for Congress to open a new frontier in education: Colleges will no longer be required to deliver at least half their courses on a campus instead of online to qualify for federal student aid.

Does anyone know of MORE this information Online? I like to read more about it.

Thanks for replying

 

Who wants to bet that in the next decade, Title IV will be adversley affected.

Now discounting the inevitable scams, "for profit" "get them signed up fast" outfits will max out student eligibility for programs that are either worthless or ones an otherwise unqualified student gets admitted to. 5-6 years down the line, they default; sooner if they drop out of the program. In the past, quasi-legit trade schools pulled this off; now anyone with a marketing plan and a server can do it.

Guess who ultimately picks up the tab?

 

This thread could fork in several directions with this question.

There is a finite amount of money available for Title IV. If the amount of money available for Title IV were infinite, we would be in a state of hyperinflation, and the whole point would be moot.

This will open the floodgates for highly specialized, narrowly focused programs to get off the ground. The supply of educational opportunities will increase significantly.

As the number of opportunities increases, the quality control burden on regulators will increase.

In order to cope, accreditors either will tighten their requirements or Title IV will max out and the whole house of cards will collapse.

I predict the former. In time, NCA will be as tough as SACS. For all we know, DETC will be as tough as SACS.

If ever there were a time to set up an online program, that time is now. Homestead your choice plot while the getting is good.

I'll take The Taxpayer for $100.