Federal student aid for DL programs & the damage caused by Masters Institute

Interesting article in the Chronicle: Questions Linger Over Rise and Fall of Online Program.

 

The Masters Institute was one of the "poster boys" for how the Dept. of Education's proposed expansion of loan programs for DL students could work. And, the Chronicle determined (from documents obtained under theFreedom of Information Act ) that Masters was "riddled with fraud" at the time they went belly up.

 

My fear is that this will keep us in the dark ages as far as loans for DL students is concerned. The traditional contact institutions who expand into distance education will be fine, but new DL-focused schools will be at a disadvantage (perhaps fatal).

 

This is truly unfortunate for the distance education world. One has to wonder though; do we only fault Masters for their fraudulent practices or do we also fault the government for failure to establish better selective standards for schools entering the pilot program?


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David F

 

Good point. The four DL schools "hand-picked" by the Dept. of Ed. for the pilot were:

• Capella University
• Masters Institute
• Southern Christian University
• Western Governors University.

IMHO, only Capella University was a good choice. Masters Institute was obviously not -- and I didn't even know that it had a DL program until I read this article. Southern Christian is RA but not a good choice (IMHO) because of its narrow focus. Western Governors was also a poor choice because it's an oddball.

If only the Dept. of Education had the wisdom to ask me to pick the schools for them...