05-17-2010, 11:19 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-17-2010, 12:32 PM by RespectableGent.)
Quote:Profit or non-profit - all the same.
If I'm running a for-profit university my goal is to keep all of my students sending in the tuition checks. I'm in it to make a profit. Education and quality comes second.
Anything which threatens the profitability of my college gets axed. I'm a businessman. Dropouts are the last thing I want. Challenging curriculum? Highly paid faculty? No way. I'll just buy some lecture videos and have my students watch those.
It's natural for any for-profit university to turn into a place where one can attend for one day a week for six months and write a few papers.
UoP, Strayer, and Walden University are all guilty of running watered-down classes and operating on short-paper curriculums, paying any faculty they have minimum wage.
George Gollin and Co. are right to fear the for-profits, calling anything they don't like "degree mills". As the states tighten their budget, they will take Europe's lead and begin privatizing its colleges and relying on for-profits for postsecondary education. In truth, the government loves "degree mills" (low-quality schools and for-profits). It takes the burden of education off their shoulders.
Why pour billions into education when there's a large for-profit sector willing to take up the slack?
The state of California is already axing Calworks, its welfare division. After welfare, education will be the next to go.
One day, years from now, public education will be the way of the dodo, professors being sacked and for-profit education being king. Higher education will be automated. Watch these videos, write these papers, and get out.
This is the real reason why the CHEA is trying to raise a fuss with the government about "degree mills". They can already see the writing on the wall.