"Arkansas to Expand Online With Grantham Acquisition"

Didn't see this one comin':

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/08/11/u-arkansas-system-plans-acquire-online-grantham-university

 

For $1??? Whoa! Yeah, that's something!

 

Sold it for $1. Sounds like the owners wanted out and it didn't have value, or that new owners could not be found.

I remember when Grantham was accredited by a legitimate--but unrecognized--accreditor. The accreditor tried for years to get Department of Education recognition through sincere--but fruitless--efforts. As DEAC moved more aggressively into accrediting degree-granting institutions, it peeled off some of the schools accredited by the alternative agency. Grantham was one of them.

There was another school also working the same side of the street as Grantham, but it offered EE degrees instead of EE Technology degrees (as Grantham did). IIRC, that school went away.

This continues a recent trend of for-profit schools being bought (like Ashford), absorbed (like Grantham), or otherwise brought under the umbrella (like Northcentral) of traditional, not-for-profit universities. Hmmmm.....

 

AAHE?

 

University of Phoenix went from having 470,000 students to less than 100,000 students. Their enrollment dropped by 50% between 2015 and 2018. Who wants to bet on when UoP will be bought out?

 

First of all The University of Arkansas' eVersity is a horrible name. Secondly, Grantham University and eVersity become University of Arkansas Global Campus would be a smart move; especially, Grantham is now having a good brand name and regional accreditation. I considered Grantham University in 2003 for a bachelor's degree, but I stayed away from it because of its DETC accreditation. I am not sure why after the Katrina hurricane they moved to Kansas from Louisana; they still did not try to pursuit HLC accreditation.

The acquisition would awesome because they could retain the students and employees with a recognizable names along with regional accreditation.

 

No. The National Association of Private Nontraditional Schools and Colleges, which is now reportedly defunct.

 

I think both Grantham and eVersity are only DEAC accredited. I believe eVersity is the only school in the University of Arkansas system that does not have regional accreditation.

I agree on the horrible, cringe-worthy name. LOL.

Here's what the diploma "University of Arkansas System eVersity" looks like:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cz5Y9OzUUAAgo9s.jpg

The deal makes sense for eVersity because they only have 799 students:
https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?493725-University-of-Arkansas-System-eVersity

It will be too expensive to maintain all that infrastructure just for 799 undergrad students. They've getting Grantham to get efficiencies of scale and spread fixed costs. Grantham has 5,865 undergrads.

 

The eVersity is accredited by DEAC, but I'm sure that's only temporary since it's a fairly new school. Grantham will be an independent school, so it'll need to separately apply for regional accreditation.

 

To be fair, you seem to hate most school names

 

Hahaa! Only abnormal school names.

 

Abnormal by your standards.

 

The other thread says that Grantham would be renamed "University of Arkansas - Grantham". So that should certainly please your ears LOL. Heck, that sounds even better than UA Global.

 

I agree that it's a silly name, but again, this is by an individual's standard. The fact that they have used that name indicates that those in charge don't feel the same way we do. There are no established factual standards for university/college names. So, this all comes down to opinion.

 

I think 799 students implies there was probably something wrong somewhere with their marketing. And marketing probably starts with the brand name. I have absolutely no proof, but my gut tells me the "eVersity" name probably turned off a lot of prospective applicants.

If eVersity is merged into "University of Arkansas - Grantham", that legit sounds a lot better. It sounds like a traditional state school.

 

Public universities in Arkansas are already pretty cheap and offer online programs. Eversity is accredited by DEAC and offers a very limited selection of degrees. There's not really a reason to go there unless your budget is really tight.

 

I had to google Earl and Grantham to figure out your post, but it was worth it LOL.