[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-591147-105":3,"doc-detail-591147-en":81,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":98},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","who-controls-online-courses-how-for-profit-companies-are-harming-public-higher-education","Who Controls Online Courses? - How For-Profit Companies Are Harming Public Higher Education","","Online-course enrollment grew rapidly between 2003 and 2016, and the analysis explains how control increasingly shifted to for-profit providers through public-private partnerships. Using Purdue University’s acquisition and renaming of Kaplan University as a case, it describes long-term service agreements, limited faculty influence, and the resulting loss of student-centered decision-making. It also examines the University of Arizona and Ashford University deal, plus the broader role of OPMs and the outsourcing logic behind partnership branding.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/who-controls-online-courses-how-for-profit-companies-are-harming-public-higher-education/591147/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/who-controls-online-courses-how-for-profit-companies-are-harming-public-higher-education/591147.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"McQueen","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-10","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What happened to online-course enrollment from 2003 to 2016?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The share of undergraduates taking at least one online course nearly tripled, rising from 15.6 to 43.1.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How did Purdue University’s acquisition of Kaplan illustrate harms to public higher education?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It created Purdue University Global under a long-term service agreement with Kaplan’s holding company, restricting the institution’s ability to act in students’ best interests and giving Kaplan veto rights over academic and admissions changes.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What are online program managers (OPMs), and what services do they provide?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"OPMs manage hundreds of online degree programs for public colleges and universities, providing services ranging from student recruitment to video production and instructional design.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},591147,1792071217,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",{"doc_id":79,"user_id":84,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":85,"doc_module":4,"category_id":86,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":87,"file_id":88,"file_url":89,"file_type":90,"file_size":91,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":92,"language":93,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":94,"faqs":95,"seo_title":96,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":80,"read_time":97,"preview_page_count":4},5909890329169,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc",8,"Who Controls Online Courses?  \nHow For-Profit Companies Are Harming Public Higher Education  \nBy Stephanie Hall  \nB  \netween 2003 and 2016, the percentage of undergraduates taking at least one course online nearly tripled, increasing from 15.6 to 43.1.1 Initially, that enrollment was concentrated in the proprietary, or for-profit, higher education  \nsector. In response, and to make up for declining numbers of“traditional” college students and the resulting revenue shortfalls, some public colleges and universities formed arrangements with for-profit education companies.*  \nWhile these arrangements take many forms, here’s an example: in 2017, without faculty input or approval, Indiana’s Purdue University acquired for-profit online giant Kaplan University, creating one of the largest online providers in the country.3 The arrangement changed Kaplan’s name to Purdue University Global and locked the newly formed institution into a long-term service agreement with Kaplan’s for-profit holding company. The institution birthed from the deal, Purdue Global, has been a captive  \nStephanie Hall is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. Previously, she worked at the University System of Maryland Office of Academic and Student Affairs, where she focused on teacher education, workforce development, civic education, and undergraduate student equity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Early in her career, she was a middle and high school teacher in the Atlanta area and in Brazil.  \nclient ofits for-profit service provider since day one and has been prevented from acting in the best interest of its students.4 It relies on Kaplan’sholding company to function, and Kaplan retains veto rights over academic and admissions changes proposed by Purdue Global. If Purdue Global wants to continue existing, it must continue to rely on Kaplan’s services. Further, in Purdue’s contract with Kaplan, Purdue agreed to continue Kaplan’s tradition of overspending on marketing and recruiting and overcharging students in tuition and fees.  \nOther similar arrangements have captured the media’s attention in the past two years.5 In 2020, the University of Arizona announced that it would acquire the notorious for-profit giant Ashford University. Ashford is known to student and consumer advocates because of its dismal track record: Ashford spends an abysmal $0.19 on instruction for every tuition dollar it collects.6 (In contrast, the median for-profit institution spends $0.38, the median private nonprofit institution spends $0.59, and the median public institution spends $1.29 on instruction for every dollar collected in tuition.7) Ashford’s students have suffered from the lack of investment in their success—just 24 percent  \n*Traditional undergraduate college students are often thought of as those under the age of 25 who enter college immediately following high school and attend full time, while nontraditional students are those whose prior experiences, opportunities, and choices may diverge from that.2  \nILLUSTRAT IONS BY PEP MONTSERRAT  \nAMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2022 25  \nreturn after their first year and the graduation rate is only 22 percent.8 In 2021, Ashford’s accreditor, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, sent the school an action letter demanding it revise and clarify its plans for academic improvement.9 Ashford has also faced a series of lawsuits and investigations for violating several states’ consumer protection laws and has been sued for fraud by the state of California.10 As yet, it is unclear how or if the University of Arizona plans to clean up Ashford’s operations, or ifit is simply sticking its name onto a subpar product and using the revenue to subsidize other parts of the system’s operations.  \nIn many respects, colleges and universities in public-private partnership arrangements have shifted control of a public good to private, for-profit companies.  \nThese high-profile arrangements operate in much the same way as","cbCaisEJtnzm0R6f","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisEJtnzm0R6f","pdf",813971,9,"English","# Who Controls Online Courses?\n## Growth of Online Learning and For-Profit Influence\n## Purdue Global and the Kaplan Service Agreement\n## Arizona and Ashford: Investment, Oversight, and Legal Scrutiny\n## Online Program Managers (OPMs) and Outsourcing Through Partnerships\n## Why Partnership Language Masks Outsourcing","[{\"question\":\"What happened to online-course enrollment from 2003 to 2016?\",\"answer\":\"The share of undergraduates taking at least one online course nearly tripled, rising from 15.6 to 43.1.\"},{\"question\":\"How did Purdue University’s acquisition of Kaplan illustrate harms to public higher education?\",\"answer\":\"It created Purdue University Global under a long-term service agreement with Kaplan’s holding company, restricting the institution’s ability to act in students’ best interests and giving Kaplan veto rights over academic and admissions changes.\"},{\"question\":\"What are online program managers (OPMs), and what services do they provide?\",\"answer\":\"OPMs manage hundreds of online degree programs for public colleges and universities, providing services ranging from student recruitment to video production and instructional design.\"}]","Who Controls Online Courses? - How For-Profit Companies Are Harming Public Higher Education | PDF",23,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":99},[100,104,108,112,116,121,126,129,133,136,140],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":105,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":107},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":109,"show_sort_weight":110,"slug":111},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":113,"show_sort_weight":114,"slug":115},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":118,"show_sort_weight":119,"slug":120},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":122,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":123,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":125},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":86,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},30,"research-report",{"id":92,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":132},"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":135},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":137,"slug":139},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":141,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":142,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":143},19,"General","general"]