

University of Phoenix to Shutter 115 Locations - 001sky
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/education/university-of-phoenix-to-close-115-locations.html

======
ericfrenkiel
For-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.

~~~
dereg
Your argument lacks sense. Care to elaborate on how greater supply leads to
higher prices?

~~~
lftl
He should have left out the for profit universities as part of the problem
(they're a symptom not the cause). It's all about the free federal dollars.
The parallels to the housing bust are pretty clear. Cheap and widely available
mortgages led to exorbitant housing prices and an eventual bust. Cheap, widely
available, and undischargable loans for education are leading to exorbitant
education costs. It'll be interesting to see how this bubble ends.

~~~
ericfrenkiel
just addressed that in another comment. another side effect is increased
revenues to these institutions caused a rampant increase in spending across
the board - personnel, buildings, facilities, departments, etc. - that are now
no longer sustainable.

------
brianbreslin
This "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

~~~
ctdonath
Dumping? 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
They accept students who aren't READY for college level education. Kids who
don't have the basis to be able to learn.

~~~
ctdonath
Unready is one thing. Unwilling is something else - and seriously
underdiscussed.

------
narrator
There goes the student loan bubble ([http://www.zerohedge.com/news/inside-
student-loan-debt-bubbl...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/inside-student-loan-
debt-bubble)). So is real estate the next bubble? Or will it be web 3.0?

------
pmb
Hooray! For-profit universities are almost uniformly a scam.

~~~
objclxt
What would you call Coursera and Udacity then? Because they're both for-
profit...

~~~
rhizome
They aren't accredited.

~~~
hollerith
So in your opinion it's the accreditation that makes U of Phoenix bad?

~~~
rhizome
No, U of Phoenix makes u of Phoenix bad. That they have been able to be
accredited just makes it worse.

------
jonah
It's made both the founder[1], John Sperling, and his son Peter
billionaires[2][3].

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sperling>

[2] <http://www.forbes.com/profile/john-sperling/>

[3] <http://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-sperling/>

------
lsiebert
There was actually an interesting npr story on UofP. I think it is
[http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/americanradioworks/p...](http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/americanradioworks/podcast/arw_6_2_phoenix.mp3)

------
username724
They had locations?

~~~
dredmorbius
American 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>

~~~
smackfu
Is 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
Good question. I don't know if those signs are free, but I suspect that as
branding and advertising, they're cheap and high-profile.

------
throw_away
how can shuttering over half their physical locations affect only 4 percent of
their students and just over 5 percent of their staff?

~~~
blaines
I'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".

