PBS Program Regarding For Profit Universities

Coming May 4, 2010, Public televison (PBS.org) is having a program called College, Inc. According to their site they state the following: " Higher education is a $400 billion industry fueled by taxpayer money. One of the fastest-growing--and most controversial--sectors of the industry is the for-profit colleges and universities. Unlike traditional colleges that raise money from wealthy alumni and other donors, many for-profit schools sell shares to investors on Wall Street. But what are students getting out of the deal? Critics say a worthless degree and a mountain of debt. Proponents insist they're innovators, widening access to education. FRONTLINE follows the money to uncover how for-profit universities are transforming the way we think about college in America." Should be interesting. Here is the site where you can preview a video.

FRONTLINE: Coming Soon - College, Inc. | PBS

 

Wow, this is a must see, yet I'm afraid to watch. Unfortunately it seems to be taking the tone of a "witch hunt". Most graduates, DL or not, are having trouble finding jobs in this current climate. It should be an interesting program.

 

Traditional universities and colleges have had the opporutnity to respond to the group of non-traditional students who needed degrees and they chose not to do so. They chose to try and force working adults into the same old model of traditional model education. They had the power to ignore the needs of the real world people. Do we really think if traditional universities had offered alternative models of education at a high level (weekend college, night classes, degree completion models, online course, etc.) that the for profit schools would have thrived. Traditional schools controlled enrollment and told the world that students had to do it the university way or not at all. For-profit universities and others found a way to get accredited and offer students what they needed. What they found was people would pay outrageous money for the opportunity for an accredited education from a real school!!! Traditional schools could have done it for much less money and much greater credibility, but they chose to control the boundries and keep people out who needed a new set of methods to go to school!!! They chose to be gatekeepers rather than innovators.

 

Sounds like an unbiased, non-sensationalist program! *sarcasm*

 

What is the difference between "For profit" and "Private"? I don't understand. Private schools have been around forever and they are nothing new. Am I wrong to say that private schools actually came first? If I am not badly mistaken, free public education was not originally the case. Only those who could pay for it were educated. We have public and private colleges right now regardless of whether they are brick and mortar or DL. So I don't understand the distinction b/t "for profit" and "private". Am I missing something?

 

I believe the classifications mentioned fall into 2 groupings (someone correct me if I am wrong): Public/Private and Profit/Non-profit. These are:

Public - state run and funded school (like University of California, SUNY, etc)
Private - a non-state run school, like Harvard, Regis, Fordham, etc.

Non-profit - A not-for-profit entity according to Federal tax laws. Most traditional public and private brick-and-mortar schools were always non-profit entities. They exist not as a business, but as an educational entity only.

For-profit - The new schools that are businesses, sometimes publicly traded, that exist to create a profit, but can also be fully accredited. UoPhoenix is the most well known of these.

Private doesn't mean for-profit, which is where I think you were confused.

TG

 

Per the US Dept of Education these are type and quantity of degree granting institutions in the USA for 2008/2009:

Public: 2,733
Private not-for profit: 1,629
Private for-profit: 1,104

 

So sad and so true. The only thing that will make our degrees worthless is if the world considers them so, and those kind of statements do just that. Shows that call them worthless are a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. This really makes me mad.

I firmly believe that my DL degrees are of higher quality than my B&M degree was.

 

Does anyone know of a way to watch this when your TV does not get PBS? Is there an online site, or something?

I don't really watch much TV but I don't want to miss this.

 

Michael, you can watch it here : FRONTLINE: home | PBS

 

Very good. Thanks so much!

 

FRONTLINE usually is fair and tries to cover both sides I would assume accredited programs from not for profit schools will also be represented in some way.

 

The complete press release found here offers more insight into the program. I thought this was particularly interesting:

 

I have had several email conversations will Dr. Manning's assistant, Lil Nankus (spelling? can't remember) about the school I go to and accreditation in general. Their office is very helpful with student questions about accreditation policies. She set my mind at ease about NCU. If you ever have concerns about a particular school, I recommend contacting them.

 

"One woman who enrolled in a for-profit doctorate program in Dallas later learned that the school never acquired the proper accreditation she would need to get the job she trained for. She is now sinking in over $200,000 in student debt. "

Doctorates are supposed to be about research, but apparently she did not research this school thoroughly.

I hope the Frontline discusses the importance of accreditation.

 

We will be getting a recording of the program. I am not concerned, since PBS often gives sensationalist previews in order to attract viewers (not unlike other TV stations or movie production companies). It would be difficult to find any "dirty, dark secrets" of for-profits that are not true of non-profits as well. The other problem is the tendency to lump all for-profits together, many of whom bear little resemblance to Apollo (U. of Phoenix), Laureate (Walden), Career Education Corp. (American InterContinental), and Capella.

The latest studies are showing that for-profits are doing a better job a educating a diverse student body and graduating them in a reasonable time at a cost similar to other institutions (and often MUCH cheaper than private for-profits).

 

If this was done by one of the network news shows, they would find the most heinous offenders, some degree mill or similar. Then they would do an "expos'e" on it and imply that the entire DL industry was the same. Hopefully, like said above, Frontline will be more reasonable and factual.