For-Profit Colleges and Universities: Their Markets, Regulation, Performance, and Place in Higher Education - Softcover

"For-profit higher education is exploding in the U.S. and across the globe. This has produced a torrent of rhetorical claims from advocates and opponents, little of which is based in evidence. At last, a fair minded and comprehensive examination of this phenomenon by a team of top thinkers and researchers. This book is a jewel, must reading for policy makers, practitioners and scholars of higher education, whether in the for-profit or not-for-profit sectors." -- Arthur Levine, President, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and President Emeritus, Teachers College"

Do for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) pose a threat to traditional providers of higher education, or do they play a vital role at a time when the capacity of public and private non-profits to meet demand is constrained? With the US no longer the leader in developing a college-educated workforce, can FPCUs help redress the competitive gap? What can be learned from the management practices and growth of FPCUs - that now number close to 3,000 institutions in the US - whose increase in enrollments has out-paced that of traditional institutions, and who now grant around 8 per cent of all degrees? This book offers a clear-eyed and balanced analysis of for-profit colleges and universities, reviewing their history, business strategies, and management practices; setting them in the context of marketplace conditions, the framework of public policy and government regulations; and viewing them in the light of the public good. Individual chapters variously explore FPCU's governance, how they develop courses and programs, and the way they define faculty work; present findings from in-depth interviews with part-time and full-time faculty to understand how external forces and the imperative of profit generation affect faculty roles and responsibilities of faculty; analyze policy considerations that affect FPCUs, including federal regulation and oversight, accountability and assessment, and the legal and regulatory issues FPCUs face internationally; and finally address the notion of academic freedom and the distribution of public monies to FPCUs. Looking beyond FPCUs' current strategy of offering career programming to non-traditional students, the book reveals how they are positioning themselves to meet future market needs by developing new programs targeting a wider group of students. Recognizing that FPCUs are more developing than fully developed, the authors convey both the current state and the unresolved issues facing these businesses, and, in so doing, surface enduring topics that face all of post-secondary education.