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University of Phoenix to Shutter 115 Locations
- narrator 14y agoThere goes the student loan bubble (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/inside-student-loan-debt-bubble http://www.zerohedge.com/news/inside-student-loan-debt-bubbl...). So is real estate the next bubble? Or will it be web 3.0?
- RobertL 14y agoReal Estate was the last bubble. University of Phoenix and all the other manifestations of academia will be the "next" bubble to burst. And it ain't gonna be pretty.
- pmb 14y agoHooray! For-profit universities are almost uniformly a scam.
- objclxt 14y agoWhat would you call Coursera and Udacity then? Because they're both for-profit...
- rhizome 14y agoThey aren't accredited.
- pmb 14y agoBoth are essentially aggregators of not-for-profit university lectures. Education is a weird thing. We don't know how to do it well, and we don't know how to ensure it is taking place, but every for-profit university (new online ones possibly excepted, I don't know) is designed to take as much money from possible from consumers who are, by definition, uninformed. Non-profit institutions have a goal of education and/or research. For-profit education is designed to soak the uninformed, with the exception of education that is for person A, but purchased by person B. In that case, it is possible for person B to be an informed buyer. Basically, the market for education is subject to many market failures. For-profits exploit these to the detriment of all.
- ericfrenkiel 14y agoFor-profit universities and the "free" federal dollars they collect are the very reason why we have exorbitant inflation in the education sector that is incommensurate with general inflation. Except for the Tier I elite universities, there is no reason for a college education to cost $40k-$50k a year. What is worse, student loans are the one type of debt that cannot be cleared through bankruptcy, meaning that millions of young adults of our generation will suffer decades of reduced incomes as they try to dig themselves out of debt for degrees that did not result in high-paying jobs.
- InclinedPlane 14y agoThat's a rather pat explanation that doesn't seem to explain things such as the rampant rise of tuition at state colleges and universities.
- gojomo 14y agoThe fact that the comparables are rising in price, and aid is available, makes the hikes at state schools thinkable. The budget problems in states then force the issue. Federal subsidies aren't the only reason for higher-educational inflation but there are growing hints that subsidies get largely captured by fee-increases. See for example these discussions: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-09/u-s-universities-feast-on-federal-student-aid-virginia-postrel.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-09/u-s-universities-fe... http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2012/02/why_they_seem_to_rise_together.html http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2012/02/why_they_s...
- vampirechicken 14y agoSo the price rises to find equilibrium with the amount of financial aid available. Similar to the cost of health care in the US.
- dereg 14y agoYour argument lacks sense. Care to elaborate on how greater supply leads to higher prices?
- throw_away 14y agohow can shuttering over half their physical locations affect only 4 percent of their students and just over 5 percent of their staff?
- blaines 14y agoI'm pretty sure they're primarily an online university and the locations were for testing and some classes. I only visited their campus in Phoenix once though. Edit: The article actually confirms that most of the students are online, and it's closing "satellite learning centers".
- username724 14y agoThey had locations?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- dredmorbius 14y agoAmerican Radio Works just ran a program on UoP / The Apollo Group. Doesn't appear that there's a stream or transcript though. University of Phoenix opened offices frequently in office buildings near freeways and other accessible areas to create physical points of presence. Most education remains online. http://www.ideastream.org/programs/entry/48203 http://www.ideastream.org/programs/entry/48203
- smackfu 14y agoIs that so they can get free advertising on the highway signs that show nearby universities? I always thought that was a very clever trick.
- dredmorbius 14y agoGood question. I don't know if those signs are free, but I suspect that as branding and advertising, they're cheap and high-profile.
- jonah 14y agoIt's made both the founder[1], John Sperling, and his son Peter billionaires[2][3]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sperling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sperling [2] http://www.forbes.com/profile/john-sperling/ http://www.forbes.com/profile/john-sperling/ [3] http://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-sperling/ http://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-sperling/
- brianbreslin 14y agoThis "university" is on the cusp of losing its accreditation in a number of places. They have a bad reputation for preying on under qualified students who otherwise couldn't get in to college, taking their money and dumping them. It is particularly pervasive in gi bill students. Their business model though profitable has dubious ethical traits to it. Disclaimer both my parents work at public universities and I've been around academia my whole life
- rhizome 14y agoAll I can say is "finally."
- ctdonath 14y agoDumping? Not. Those who do what it takes to learn the material pass; those who don't, don't. An unwillingness to pass those unwilling to learn is not "dumping". More than enough learning resources are provided & available; most of those I fail are just plain unwilling to learn.
- brianbreslin 14y agoThey accept students who aren't READY for college level education. Kids who don't have the basis to be able to learn.
- ctdonath 14y agoUnready is one thing. Unwilling is something else - and seriously underdiscussed.
- lsiebert 14y agoThere was actually an interesting npr story on UofP. I think it is http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/americanradioworks/podcast/arw_6_2_phoenix.mp3 http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/americanradioworks/p...