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The real problem is the way accreditation works. I've been in higher ed for most of my career and the real issue here is once a college has accreditation they c
by omnivore 11y ago
The real problem is the way accreditation works. I've been in higher ed for most of my career and the real issue here is once a college has accreditation they can pretty much operate in perpetuity. Unless they go broke.
Sweet Briar was an unusual case because you had a fervent alumni, a dedicated type of institution (all female) and a desire from people to close the place without giving anyone say in the process.
The fact that they tried to do abruptly was precisely why the alumni rallied, but they've been screwed because of how it was done.
If you want to talk about disruption, here's your trick. Raise enough funds to take a college over and run all of the online programs you want, keep the main campus and do what you want with it, but...ultimately, if you can get the keys to a regionally accredited college, you could do a lot of things.
Most people just don't know the sector well enough to really understand how to disrupt it from the inside out. (I obviously do.)
- untilHellbanned 11y agoAre you going to do anything?
- kansface 11y agoRaising a hundred? million dollars to "acquire" accreditation via a small college is not within the realm of startups. Perhaps just tens of millions is needed? Even if you acquired a college, turning it into a de facto online for-profit institution would be an impossible sell to professors as an outsider. I think its far more likely that some existing (accredited) college will offer degrees online for pennies on the dollar with open enrollment - perhaps they could start with degrees in eg CS, where online grading is trivial. Disruptive innovations typically start at the bottom.
- mjklin 11y agoYou seem to be following the plan laid out in Frontline's College, Inc[1]. Find a struggling college that has accreditation, take it all online, rake in dem bucks from online students who get federal loans. [1] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/
- simulate 11y agoThis is what UniversityNow attempted with its takeover of Patten University: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120709005304/en/UniversityNow-Acquires-Patten-University-Expands-Network-Affordable http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120709005304/en/Univ...