Top 20 Online Colleges by Headcount

a few surprises for me

Eduventures | Top 20 Online Colleges and Universities by Headcount

courtesy of Eduventures

 

I found this interesting. Thanks for posting.

 

Very interesting post. I did not realize that APUS was quite that large.

 

Yeah, APUS is really big. I remember taking a class with them when I first transferred for my undergrad. I didn't like their platform, it seemed cheesy to me when I first took them. However, it works well for those in the military. (They also offer degrees in military studies, which makes me curious to see how many are enrolled in that undergraduate program.)

Overall, I enjoyed APUS, but I transitioned to Liberty because I wanted an emphasis in psychology, along with a spiritual aspect of my studies.

 

I'm a little surprised at the success of Grand Canyon, they seemed rather expensive to me when I checked...and aren't they co owned by the same group that holds UofP?

Good to see both AMU and WGU growing by leaps and bounds, I hope they can keep the quality up while managing the growth. 16% /year is huge!

 

No, UoP and GCU are not connected, except that they both happen to be for-profit schools based in Arizona.

UoP is owned by Apollo Group, which trades on NASDAQ as APOL. Apollo does own another Arizona-based school, Western International University.

GCU is owned by Grand Canyon Education, Inc., which trades on NASDAQ as LOPE (the mascot for GCU athletics is the 'Lope, short for "Pronghorn Antelope")

 

You might be wondering why this list doesn't include any of the "Big 3" schools. For example, Excelsior College (with around 36,000 students) and TESC (with around 20,000 students) are bigger than several of the schools that did make the list.

Apparently Eduventures doesn't consider Excelsior or TESC to be truly "online schools", because their students can get credits in a variety of different ways, not just from online study. For example, Big 3 students commonly transfer in credit from B&M schools, or get credit by exam.

Not sure this is a helpful distinction. Seems like anyone using this list ought to at least be aware of the Big 3 options.

 

There is no legal connection, but Brian Mueller (the CEO of Grand Canyon), Stan Meyer (COO), and Dan Bachus (CFO) all worked for Apollo Group prior to their tenure at GCU.

http://www.gcu.edu/About-Us/Grand-Canyon-Education-Inc-/Leadership-Team.php

 

My impression is that this is not unusual -- the for-profit education sector seems to be full of former Apollo/UoP staff who saw the opportunities first-hand and decided to start their own education businesses.

For example, many of the top executives at Bridgepoint Education (owners of Ashford University) are former UoP employees, including the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Academic Officer, and General Counsel.

 

Yes, that's definitely true. GCU and Bridgepoint do seem to be run like Apollo, too.