Education Company Buys Religious College

Bridgepoint Education, a California company that offers online college courses, announced last week that it was purchasing the Franciscan University of the Prairies, an 87-year-old Roman Catholic institution in Iowa, and changing its name to Ashford University.

Bridgepoint Education, founded in 1999, offers online courses to students who have completed their associate degrees. Those credits can then be transferred to Charter Oak State College, an accredited distance-learning institution in Connecticut that has a partnership with Bridgepoint.

Andrew Clark, the company’s chief executive officer, said the deal with Franciscan would allow Bridgepoint to expand its offerings. “We had been looking to acquire our own university for the last eight to 10 months,” Mr. Clark said. “The most important thing to us was the quality of the university’s academic programs.”

Mr. Clark said the university, which will become a for-profit institution, would lose its religious identity. “They were aware from the very beginning that that would be going away,” he said.

However, the president of Franciscan, Michael E. Kaelke, said that despite the change in name and ownership, the 550-student university would continue to maintain much of its religious connection. For example, he said, the six hours of religious credit that each student must now take will still be required.

While it was Bridgepoint that approached Franciscan about a possible purchase, the university had been considering a sale or merger for some time, Mr. Kaelke said. The university was founded and is owned by the Sisters of Saint Francis, who have experienced a decline in membership over the last several decades, causing financial strain on the institution.

http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Volume 51, Issue 27, Page A31