Since the advent of distance education, colleges have been working closely with companies like Academic Partnerships, the Apollo Group’s Institute for Professional Development, Pearson, and, more recently, 2U, to develop, market, and run online courses. In some cases, like that of Altius Education and Tiffin University’s Ivy Bridge College, financial, programmatic, and even accreditation ties between colleges and companies have gone deeper, stretching traditional notions of “service provider” relationships. Some haven’t worked out. Some have fallen below expectations. And some are too new to have a track record. Following are some examples:
Past
College for Working Families
A now-defunct joint venture between the nonprofit National Labor College, which owned 51 percent, and the Penn Foster Education Group. Was designed to develop and market online degrees to labor-union members and their families, but the partnership was dissolved in late 2011, with the college blaming Penn Foster for lackluster marketing.
Ellis College
An online college created in 2003 by New York Institute of Technology and a company called UNext (later Cardean Learning Group, and after that Capital Education). In 2008, NYIT began phasing out Ellis College, offering students the chance to continue at NYIT or at a new Ellis University. The university had just received regional accreditation and would receive services from Cardean, which was still partly owned by NYIT. The regional accreditation was subsequently withdrawn, but Ellis University, since renamed John Hancock University and acquired by the Temania Group, is now accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council. In a December 2012 settlement with federal authorities, NYIT agreed to pay $2.5-million and Cardean $1.5-million over allegations that Ellis College unlawfully paid bonuses to its student recruiters.
Present
Ameritas College
Originally designed as a four-year bilingual Hispanic-serving college that would be a joint venture between Brandman University and an arm of the University Ventures investment fund, the enterprise suffered from low enrollment. It was converted in the summer of 2013 into a one-year pathways program aimed at Spanish-speaking students entering community college. The joint venture was dissolved.
American Honors
Provides an online platform, student coaching, and other services to community-college honors colleges. Owned by a company called Quad Learning, the company is now working with Ivy Tech Community College and Community Colleges of Spokane. College partners pay a portion of students’ tuition and fee revenue to the company.
Future
The Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute
The Minerva Project, a company backed by $25-million in venture capital, plans to enroll a founding class of up to 19 students in the fall of 2014 under the auspices of Keck’s accreditation. Minerva’s model calls for students to live together in various cities around the world and take classes in intensive online seminars. Keck would obtain rights to that educational model and to Minerva’s proprietary software for the virtual classrooms. Keck’s accreditor will begin considering the ‘substantive change” in November.
Thunderbird School of Global Management with Laureate Education
The two parties plan to create a new service-provider company, with ownership evenly split between them, through which Thunderbird can expand its online offerings in executive education and undergraduate business programs. Laureate has offered Thunderbird a sale-leaseback on its Phoenix campus worth $53-million, plus $13-million to help it create the new programs and rights to offer its programs at Laureate sites around the world. Thunderbird’s accreditor will consider the change in structure in February.
Georgia Tech’s Online Master’s in Computer Science
The Georgia Institute of Technology and Udacity plan to offer the master’s curriculum through a massive open online course, and offer the degree for credit at an unusually low cost—$6,600—to all who qualify for admission. The first students could be enrolled as early as January. The university will receive 60 percent of the tuition revenue, Udacity 40 percent.
