National University Acquiring NCU?

Sounds interesting how these university systems are merging. So how about a future NCU's DBA for CS folks?

 

It looks like several subsidiary universities are listed under their website:
https://www.nusystem.org/

 

I wonder if NCU move to San Diego was in preparation for this aquisition.

 

I was surprised to see that National University has absorbed both John F. Kennedy U. and City U. of Seattle, in addition to NorthCentral U.

Along with moving its address to San Diego, NorthCentral U. has also been accredited by WASC.

https://www.wscuc.org/institutions/northcentral-university

 

It seems odd that multiple "universities" are under the subsidiary of "National University System." It's sort of like:

American Public University System, https://www.apus.edu/

1. American Public University?
2. American Military University

National University System, https://www.nusystem.org/

1. National University?
2. John F. Kennedy University
3. City University of Seattle
4. Northcentral University
5. National University Virtual High School
6. National University Academy
7. Sanford Harmony at National University
8. Sanford Inspire at National University
9. Sanford Institute of Philanthropy

Here is their 2020 plan: https://www.nusystem.org/About/NUS2020.html

It seems odd to have so many different schools all under the same umbrella, offering duplicate degrees under different names. Most of them are offering degrees in education, business, management and psychology. The price-point will presumably be the same or similar (a comparison would be interesting). Is this the trend of the future and what makes it sustainably profitable? For how long?

 

wow, real spaghetti in making; I wonder in next decade we get to a point where it become pointless where the degree comes from, since every university will be an offshoot of some other apparently unrelated university or may be there comes some mathematical equations to solve to see the 'real' weighted average for a given university (Kaplan + Georgia Tech,) /2 or (City university + NU + NCU + JFK + (San *3) )/n or whatever.

 

You could conceivably get four separate degrees from "National University System" from four different university names:

• AA, National University
  
• BS, City University of Seattle
• MA, John F. Kennedy University
• PhD, Northcentral University

 

The sale/purchase of NCU was expected. The industry is consolidating nothing unusual here. Unless there is another transformative innovation in for-profit education the industry is in decline. There is a firesale, and the few entities remaining will be just cash cows. Do not expect any innovation from them, they will just be happy to take your money, until they become extinct. If you don’t believe, then ask your investment analyst who is holding these investments.

 

Only the first four award degrees. I don't know how completely National University plans to absorb the other three. Several of them (JFKU in particular) have their own histories and institutional cultures. But there could be synergies as they pool their resources.

The last five entities on the list seem to be education-related activities at the K-12 level, which fits the education focus. The things they do there might help NU acquire a stronger academic reputation in education. For example:

https://www.nuacademy.org/about-nua/

and

https://www.nuvhs.org/

Sanford Inspire offers free Mooc-style professional devolopment classes for teachers, to help them inspire their students.

https://www.sanfordinspire.org/

Denny Sanford (a multi-billionaire businessman in South Dakota who wants to die broke) seems to have lavishly funded some of these education experiments, which says something about what he thought of NU I guess (or at least its future potential). Sanford's the same benefactor that gave the Burnham Institute a truck-load of cash causing it to rename itself the Sanford-Burnham Medical Discovery Institute. The U. of South Dakota Medical School is now the U.S.D. Sanford Medical Center. He paid for a new pediatric health facility at the Mayo Clinic. He gave $1 billion to some hospitals in South Dakota and they are now amalgamated into Sanford Health. And on and on... (hence the relevance of the Sanford Institute of Philanthropy).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Denny_Sanford

 

I have a BA from San Francisco State (part of the CSU system) and an MA from CSU Dominguez Hills.

In both the CSU case and the NU case, each institution has its own faculty, facilities, programs and accreditation. In the NU case, City U. of Seattle isn't even accredited by the same regional accreditor as the other three. (NW Association as opposed to WASC.)

 

Heirophant, that's a good point. Each of the private universities appears to have their own independent infrastructures, but they are all owned by the same corporation. It is done that way by the 50 different states and territories (with state university systems), so it can obviously be done by private corporations (with private university systems). It's an interesting concept.

 

It is a very interesting structure. Closest I ever came is that I did some volunteer work with a guy who earned his Bachelors from City University of Seattle which got me to poking around after I learned that little tidbit about him.

The prices are high but they have some interesting overnight throughout the system. I’d venture that having separate schools like this, aside from preserving any history or alumni culture the schools may have had before being acquired, probably also allows them to fly under the radar quite effectively.

JFK and City University have the sort of names that people are very likely to hear and never question. Collectively they are big but their market is segmented into different schools. Perhaps it’s just an unintended consequence that this helps them avoid the stigma of, say, SNHU which is often mistaken for a for profit given its aggressive recruiting and UPhoenix style ads.

 

I’m of the opinion that non profit is favorable over for profit when it comes to colleges/universities. Nor do I believe that all for profit institutions are bad, or conversely that all non profits are good. Non profit is just one criteria that I look for in a school.

That being said, transitioning to non profit is a good thing for the students and alumni as far as I’m concerned. It should help their reputation, at a minimum. It should also potentially help support their ability to Grow their enrollment.

I would like to think that some costs can be shared and synergies be capitalized on being brought together. This could potentially help keep student cost from skyrocketing. At least I hope it does.

I’m glad SNHU was brought up in this conversation. Yes, the have really ramped up their marketing. Maybe they are starting to resemble UoP , but with some major key differences. Traditional brick and mortar campus, history dating back to the 1930s, clean reputation (double check this), NCAA sports, etc. I really like that SNHU has taken the good ideas on how to grow enrollment online from UoP and presumably kept a tight ship.

I hope this new entity created by NU adopt The SNHU model and finds similar success.

If we can get a handful of non profits who can perform well as larger online schools, we will have to see some level of pricing competition. UoP was one of, if not the #1, providers of online education options on a large scale. They had a lot of price control with less players in the marketplace. Doesn’t competition help the consumer in our economy? Is it different in academia? Am I looking at this wrong?

 

Private online university degrees (graduate level), both non-profit and for-profit, generally have a low end of about $1500 per course (3 credits) and a high end of $2800 per course. Both price-points are high. Also, the price-points of all the universities in the NU system are all extraordinarily high, especially when they are compared with taxpayer subsidized state university systems.

 

First I'm hearing of the big price hike and new ownership. It's a little disconcerting. If you enroll somewhere and they get bought before you graduate, your degree could be from somewhere different, or no?

 

Absolutely, your degree could be from an institution other than where you started. This could work in your favor too. If I were a Kaplan student, I’d be thrilled that I’m going to be able to list Purdue on my Resume.

 

On the other hand, there were many unhappy campers when Argosy University bought the highly respected (especially for a for-profit) University of Sarasota.

It doesn't even take a purchase - some schools simply change their names without changing ownership. I matriculated at the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities (UECU). When I got to my entry colloquium I found out about their metamorphosis to The Union Institute. (We liked that one.) And, after they acquired Vermont College from Norwich University, they again renamed the school to Union Institute & University. (Mixed reviews of that one.)

Several years ago, Philadelphia College of Bible became Philadelphia Biblical University. A few years after that, they were renamed Cairn University.

And, of course, there was one of the most famous name changes: Beaver College, when it attained university status, was renamed Arcadia University. It seems that high schoolers using their school computers were unable to access the college's web site because "beaver" was a restricted word.

General rule: Your diploma will reflect the name of the school as it exists, for better or worse, at the time of your graduation.