Even though every article I write in this series is incredibly long, I always have to leave something out. Here are some of the other stories that were told about for-profit higher ed this year – stories I didn’t fit into part eight in my year-end-series:
For-Profit Higher Ed Under Trump
For more details on how the for-profit industry has infiltrated the Department of Education, see part two of my year-end series: “Education Technology, Betsy DeVos, and the Innovation Gospel”
Via The Atlantic: “What a New Trump Administration Hire Could Mean for For-Profit Colleges”
“If Trump Pulls Back, Can States Do More to Regulate For-Profit Colleges?” asks The Chronicle of Higher Education
Via Politico: “Trump and DeVos fuel a for-profit college comeback.”
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “For-Profit Colleges Find Few Reasons to Lobby a Friendlier Education Dept.”
Via NPR: “Back To The Starting Line On Regulating For-Profit Colleges.”
Via Buzzfeed: “Betsy DeVos Is Halting Protections For For-Profit College Students.”
A press release from the Department of Education: “Secretary DeVos Announces Regulatory Reset to Protect Students, Taxpayers, Higher Ed Institutions”
“Predator Colleges May Thrive Again” – from The Editorial Board of The New York Times
Via The New York Times: “For-Profit Schools, an Obama Target, See New Day Under Trump.”
Via Mother Jones: “Betsy DeVos Champions For-Profit Schools That Are Deceiving Taxpayers and Vulnerable Students.”
From the Bloomberg Editorial Board: “A Raw Deal From Betsy DeVos” – “Rolling back regulations on the for-profit college industry will cause the public pain.”
Via The Washington Post: “DeVos rejects invitation to meet with former for-profit college students” Commentary via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Selling Swampland: For-Profit Colleges in the Age of Trump.”
Via ProPublica: “Former Lobbyist With For-Profit Colleges Quits Education Department”
Via Inside Higher Ed: USA Funds’ Ties to Education Department Advisor"
Via The New York Times: “Betsy DeVos’s Hiring of For-Profit College Official Raises Impartiality Issues”
Via ProPublica: “For-Profit Colleges Gain Beachhead in Trump Administration”
Bootcamps
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Coding Boot Camps Come Into the Fold With Campus Partnerships”
Via Edsurge: “Tech Needs More Than Coders. This Bootcamp Will Train Sales Chops (and Even Pay For It)”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Earning a Degree to Go to Camp”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Enablers, but for Boot Camps”
Via Campus Technology: “George Mason U Signs with Outsourcer to Train Students in Coding”
Via Techcrunch: “Holberton gets backing from more industry executives as it looks to scale its software engineering school”
Via The New York Times: “Holberton, a Two-Year Tech School, Emphasizes Diversity”
Via QZ: “A free, teacher-less university in France is schooling thousands of future-proof programmers”
Via Edsurge: “Student Results From Coding Bootcamp Coalition: 92% On-Time Graduation Rate, $70K Salary”
Via Techcrunch: “An insider’s take on the future of coding bootcamps”
Via Edsurge: “Common (and Avoidable) Legal Pitfalls for Coding Bootcamps and Alternative Education Providers”
Via Fast Company: “This is What Coding Bootcamps Need to Do to Beat the Backlash”
Via Edsurge: “Nonprofit Bootcamps Want to Make Coding Accessible to Low-Income Learners”
Via Campus Technology: “4 out of 5 Companies Have Hired a Coding Bootcamp Graduate”
“Coding Boot Camps Are in Trouble, but New York City Has a Plan to Shape Them Up,” says MIT Technology Review. (“The Plan” is really more of “a report.”)
EQUIP
Via Inside Higher Ed: “4 Student Aid Experiments Will End”
Accreditation
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Terminated Accreditor Applies for Recognition”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “ACICS-Accredited Colleges Meet Federal Deadline”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “States Intervene in Accreditor’s Suit Against Feds”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Trump Administration Backs Termination of ACICS”
Entangled Solutions (and Accreditation)
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Backers of an Audit Model for Judging Education Quality Invite Feedback”
Via Edsurge: “What Is ‘Quality’? Task Force Seeks Comment on Higher-Ed Outcomes Reporting Standards”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “For-Profit Universities 2.0” – penned by two consultants from Entangled Solutions
More Stories about Financial Aid
Read part three of this year-end series: “Education Technology and the Business of Student Debt”
For-Profits and Popular Culture
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “John Grisham’s Latest Villain? For-Profit Colleges.”
ITT
Via Inside Higher Ed: “ITT Students Seek Recognition in Bankruptcy Lawsuit”
Via The Indianapolis Business Journal: “Legal skirmishes break out over ITT documents, data”
Via The Washington Post: “SEC settles fraud charges against defunct for-profit college company ITT”
Via The Indianapolis Business Journal: “ITT trustee hires ‘feared’ litigators”
Community Colleges (versus For-Profits)
“Revised Data Shows Community Colleges Have Been Underappreciated” by Kevin Carey in The New York Times
Via Inside Higher Ed: “From For-Profits to Community Colleges”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Data on Community College Grads Who Earn Graduate Degrees”
Career Education Corporation
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Career Education Settles False Claims Suit”
From the press release: “William Hansen Joins Career Education Corporation Board of Directors.” Hansen is one of those figures that really demonstrates the political and financial networks that govern education. He was Deputy Secretary of Education under George W. Bush. He was the chairman of Scantron. He has been the president of the student loan org Strada Education Network (formerly known as USA Funds) since 2013.
Gainful Employment
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Education Department Signals Possible Changes to Gainful-Employment Rule.”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “AGs Sue DeVos Over Gainful Employment Rule”
[Via Buzzfeed](https://www.buzzfeed.com/mollyhensleyclancy/17-states-and-dc-are-suing-betsy-devos-over-for-profit]: “Betsy DeVos Is Being Sued By 17 States Over For-Profit College Rules”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “US Continues to Delay, Soften Gainful Employment Rules”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “2-Pronged Strategy Against ‘Gainful’ Rule”
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Education Dept. Delays Compliance Deadline for Gainful-Employment Rules”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Beneficiaries of the DeVos Delay”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Judge Partially Blocks Enforcement Gainful Employment Rule”
Via The New York Times: “U.S. Halts New Rules Aimed at Abuses by For-Profit Colleges.”
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education in June: “Education Dept. Gives Firm Hint at Rollback of Gainful-Employment Rule.”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Education Department Defends Gainful Employment”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Report: Public Money Skews Gainful Employment Rule”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Will Data Error Threaten For-Profit Regulation?”
Via Bloomberg: “Cosmetology Schools Sue Betsy DeVos Over Obama-Era Rules.”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “200 Colleges Appeal Gainful Employment Ratings”
Via Buzzfeed: “Hundreds Of College Programs Could Be Shut Down For Breaking Student Debt Rules”
Via Bloomberg: “Hundreds of Colleges Saddling Students With Unaffordable Debt, Feds Say.”
“Programs That Are Predatory: It’s Not Just at For-Profit Colleges,” writes Kevin Carey in The New York Times
For-Profits and Fraud
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Which Colleges Do Students Say Defraud Them Most Often? For-Profit Colleges”
Kaplan
Kaplan Inc has agreed to acquire the College for Financial Planning from Apollo Education Group. (Looks like Kaplan Inc isn’t getting out of for-profit higher ed altogether, even with the sale of Kaplan University to Purdue.)
More on Kaplan (and Purdue) in my article on “the innovation gospel”
Trump University
Via Politico: “Appeal could drag out Trump University settlement.”
Via The New York Times: “Judge Approves $25 Million Settlement Of Trump University Lawsuit.”
Via The New York Times: “Trump University Lawsuits May Not Be Closed After All.”
Cosmetology Schools
“Why Betsy DeVos Just Might Be A Cosmetology School’s Savior” – Buzzfeed’s Molly Hensley-Clancy profiles Pro Way Hair School in Stone Mountain, Georgia
InfiLaw (and the Charlotte School of Law and the Arizona Summit Law School)
Via The Charlotte Observer: “Charlotte School of Law starts food drive so students get something to eat”
Via the ABA Journal: “Charlotte School of Law students reportedly will receive spring loan money”
Via The New York Times: “For-Profit Law School Faces Crisis After Losing Federal Loans”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Charlotte Law Faced Criminal Probe While Seeking Federal Aid”
Via The Charlotte Observer: “Under DeVos, who’s the next Charlotte School of Law?”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Department Lays Out Options for Charlotte Students”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “The Slow Death of a For-Profit Law School”
Via The Atlantic: “The Future of a Once-Doomed Law School”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “For-Profit Law School May Have Aid Restored”
Via The New York Times: “For-Profit Charlotte Law School Is Subject of North Carolina Inquiry”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Crackdown on For-Profit Law Schools”
Via The New York Times: “For-Profit Law School in Arizona Is Put on Probation”
Via The New York Times: “How to Con Black Law Students: A Case Study”
“Why Would an HBCU Partner With A For-Profit Law School?” by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Legal education observers say accreditation issues at Florida Coastal School of Law – whose graduates have struggled to pay off loans – should lead to tougher look at its parent company, InfiLaw.”
The Wall Street Journal profiles InfiniLaw, a company that runs for-profit law schools. According to the article, it’s looking to sell off its two remaining schools, Arizona Summit Law School and Florida Law School. Its third school, Charlotte School of Law shut down this summer
DeVry University
Via Inside Higher Ed: “NY Attorney General Settles Lawsuit with DeVry”
Via Inside Higher Ed in early December: “Adtalem Global Education, the company that owns DeVry University, announced Monday that ownership of the for-profit institution would transfer to Cogswell Education LLC.” “Troubled DeVry University Gets Sold Off For A Pittance,” Buzzfeed’s Molly Hensley-Clancy reports. “Huh?” says “Dean Dad” Matt Reed
From Inside Higher Ed in June: “FTC Refunds Former DeVry Students”
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education:“A For-Profit-College Company Embraces Its Technology-Focused Past and Its Evolving Future”
Via Inside Higher Ed in May“ ”DeVry Rebrands as Adtalem Education"
Corinthian Colleges (and Zenith Education)
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Corinthian’s Long Wind-Down”
Via Buzzfeed: “Corinthian Colleges’ Buyer Says It’s Closing Most Campuses”
Bridgepoint Education (Ashford University)
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Court Dismisses Petition from Ashford U on GI Bill Approval”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “VA Backs Ashford on Arizona Move”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Ashford University Notches Win in GI Bill Dispute”
Via Buzzfeed: “California Is Suing A Giant For-Profit College For Allegedly Misleading Students.” That’s Bridgepoint Education, which runs Ashford University.
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “3 Startling Claims From California’s Lawsuit Against a For-Profit College.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education with a look “Inside the Scramble to Save Ashford U.” And following that investigation, “Ashford University announced this week that it has temporarily suspended new enrollment of veteran students who receive the Post–9/11 GI Bill, ” Inside Higher Ed reports.
Rebranding
Via Buzzfeed: “Troubled Colleges Rebrand Under Faux-Latin Names”
Recruiting for For-Profits (at K–12 Level)
Via ProPublica: “For-Profit Schools Reward Students for Referrals and Facebook Endorsements.”
Closures
Via The LA Times: “Westech College’s abrupt closure raises questions about training options.”
Via The St Louis Post Dispatch: “Berkeley-based Vatterott Education Centers files for receivership, plans sale”
The McNally Smith College of Music, a for-profit music college, will close its doors at the end of the semester.
Who Attends For-Profits?
Via Inside Higher Ed: “For-Profit Graduate Schools Popular With Black Women”
Apollo Education Group (and the University of Phoenix)
Via the Phoenix Business Journal: “University of Phoenix laying off full-time faculty; 170 could be impacted”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Apollo Group Finalizes Sale for $1.14 Billion”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “U of Phoenix-HBCU Partnership Expands”
Via The Phoenix New Times: “University of Phoenix Phasing Out Campuses; Current Students Not Affected, School Says”
Singularity U
Via The MIT Technology Review: “For $14,000, a Weeklong Firehose of Silicon Valley Kool-Aid”
The Minerva Project
Via The Times Higher Education: “For-profit claims ‘learning gain’ victory over universities.” That’s “elite” education startup The Minerva Project, which has discovered if you are very exclusive with who you admit to your program, you can boast that your students perform very well on standardized tests. It’s an amazing amazing breakthrough
Regulations Are Bad (Says Someone Who Works for the For-Profit Industry)
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Winnowing the Field”
Unique International College (in Australia)
Via The Guardian: “College made millions by tricking Indigenous people, court finds”
Berkeley College
Via The New York Times“ ”Mixed Picture for a For-Profit College."
Strayer and Capella
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Strayer and Capella Announce Merger”
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Cappella-Strayer Merger Is Latest Sign of Upheaval in For-Profit Sector”
“The Strayer/Capella Merger and What it Means for For-Profits” by Michael Feldstein
Via The Wall Street Journal: “Strayer Education, Capella Education Near Merger Deal”
For-Profit Med Schools
Via Inside Higher Ed: “For-Profit Med School Comes Ashore”
Switching from For-Profit to Not-For-Profit
Via Buzzfeed: “ The Education Department Will Allow Two Large For-Profit Colleges To Become Nonprofits”
Via The Economist: “For-profit colleges in America relaunch themselves as non-profits.”
Republicans and For-Profits
Via The Atlantic: “The Closing of the Republican Mind on For-Profit Colleges”
Via New America: “How the G.O.P. Became For-Profit College Abuse Deniers”
Via Media Matters: “Newt Gingrich used Fox position to push for-profit colleges without disclosing conflict of interest”
EDMC (and the Dream Center Foundation)
Via Inside Higher Ed: “New Nonprofit Owner for EDMC”
Via The Pittsburgh Post Gazette: “EDMC completes sale of schools to Dream Center”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Letter Urges DeVos to Set Conditions on EDMC Sale”
Via Buzzfeed: “How The For-Profit College Art Institutes Found A Savior With Christian Roots”
Globe U
Via Inside Higher Ed: “In Reversal, Former Globe U Campuses to Close”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Two For-Profits Must Pay Restitution to Students”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “A Shuttered For-Profit Re-emerges”
For-Profits and Federal Funds
Via Brookings: “How much do for-profit colleges rely on federal funds?”
Delta Career Education Corporation
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Small For-Profit Closes 7 Campuses”
For-Profits and Vets
Via The Century Foundation: “Vietnam Vets and a New Student Loan Program Bring New College Scams”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Crackdown on ‘Pay to Play’ for ‘Military-Friendly’ Colleges”
Via The Seattle Times: “VA abruptly drops plan to suspend ethics law”
Via Inside Higher Ed: “VA Seeks Broad Waiver of Rule Barring Payments from For-Profits”
Via Vice: “Trump’s ‘Forever GI Bill’ won’t stop for-profit schools from preying on vets”
Downes v VCs
Via the venture capital firm University Ventures: “What We All Agree On”
“We Are Not Agreed” by Stephen Downes
The Amazing, Essential Tressie McMillan Cottom
Via Inside Higher Ed: “Lower Ed”
Via “Dean Dad” Matt Reed: “Lower Ed: A Review”
Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “A Sociologist Looks at the Failure of the For-Profits and the Rise of Trump”