Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    College Advising
    Serving Higher Ed
    Chronicle Festival 2025
Sign In
Mixed Opinions

The Ed Dept. Is Reconsidering College-Recruitment Practices. Here Are 7 Reactions We Heard.

By Taylor Swaak March 9, 2023
Illustration shows figure at lecturn looking at dialogue balloons
André da Loba for The Chronicle

The Ed Dept. Is Considering Reining in Recruiting Practices. 7 Things We Heard During This Week’s Listening Sessions

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

The U.S. Department of Education heard dozens of public comments this week on whether it should update or reverse guidance that laid the groundwork for how many colleges recruit students.

In question is a 2011 Dear Colleague letter that provided an exception to the federal incentive-compensation ban: Colleges could have revenue-share agreements with companies offering recruitment services, so long as recruitment was part of a “bundle” of other services, such as IT support and course design. This exception is widely credited for the birth of the multibillion-dollar online-program-management industry, which has helped hundreds of institutions erect online-degree programs but also attracted scrutiny for cases of deceptive and aggressive recruiting practices.

What comes out of these listening sessions matters for institutions. Revenue-share models are the most common arrangement between online-program-management companies, often referred to as OPMs, and colleges, and many institutions rely on outsourced recruitment and marketing support as they compete for a shrinking pool of students. Should the Education Department ultimately decide to alter or reverse its 2011 guidance, many colleges would need to rework their vendor contracts.

Feedback from about 70 individuals over four hours was split. Some applauded the guidance for enabling the growth of low-cost and accessible online programming, while others argued that the revenue-share models that have emerged — many of which give OPMs more than 50 percent of tuition dollars — put recruitment and financial gain over student outcomes. Here are seven key themes we heard in arguments for and against the 2011 guidance:

FOR: Low-cost options and flexibility for students.

While there are cases of pricey online-degree programs, OPM representatives said their size and expertise has helped colleges create low-cost programs that remove barriers to entry for students. The weighted-average tuition of a degree program supported by Academic Partnerships, a major OPM, is about $15,600 in total, said its senior vice president for government affairs, Adam Arguelles. A few college administrators chimed in, too; one from Eastern Michigan University cited the institution’s $10,000 online-nursing program.

A half-dozen former students, including those who’d gotten OPM-supported degrees from George Washington University and the University of Southern California, also spoke to how critical the online-learning option was for juggling their education with child care, jobs, and health issues.

“Online education, when done well, is transformative,” said Haley Scott DeMaria, who got her master’s degree in teaching at USC and is now director of admissions at an elementary school.

AGAINST: Deceptive tactics harm students and exacerbate loan debt.

ADVERTISEMENT

Perhaps the most-cited grievance with the bundled-services exception is that it incentivizes companies to deploy deceptive and aggressive recruiting tactics — often targeting vulnerable populations, such as single parents and those who’d previously “stopped out” of a program. One former student who got a master’s in social work online through USC said he was promised a scholarship that never materialized. Another student who’d enrolled in an online doctoral program through Vanderbilt University recalled how employees of one of the nation’s largest OPMs, 2U, masqueraded as college admissions counselors, using Vanderbilt email addresses.

“You sold me a dream that may never be realized,” said Kerry O’Grady. “I’m angry ... for placing unconditional trust into a system that ultimately failed me.”

This deception, a few pointed out, can contribute to already soaring graduate-student loan debt. There are effectively no caps for graduate-school loan borrowing.

Former students who commented cited loan debt as high as $190,000. One college employee also submitted a written statement that they knew of students at their institution with debt surpassing $300,000.

FOR: Support and visibility to smaller institutions.

ADVERTISEMENT

Multiple college administrators, most notably from small, private colleges, underscored that OPM partnerships have been crucial to the development and visibility of their online programs as they compete with larger universities in a crowded “ecosystem.”

David Lees, director of distributed learning and educational technology at La Salle University, in Philadelphia, said working with Academic Partnerships has led to “sustainable growth” in the college’s online programs, despite the competitive local market. Anne Skleder, president of Brenau University, in Gainesville, Ga., said the revenue-share model, where OPMs absorb the upfront investment and risk, is important for smaller institutions that may not otherwise have the capital or capacity.

Helen Drinan, interim president of Cabrini University, in Radnor Township, Penn., added that her institution’s recent partnership with 2U has also been the difference between “getting into expanded markets and not.”

Historically, the college has recruited “only in our local area because we have very limited marketing capacity,” Drinan said. “But we believe our high-quality, mission-driven education deserves to compete nationally.”

AGAINST: Recruiting is a bigger part of the bundle than anticipated.

ADVERTISEMENT

A handful of speakers noted that there’s evidence to suggest that recruitment services make up a much larger chunk of colleges’ bundled services than the Education Department anticipated when it made the bundled-services exception. That reality, they argued, warrants modifying, or rescinding, the guidance.

In a cited 2022 survey from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association, for example, about 90 percent of respondents said they had “moderate” or “high” need for OPMs to provide recruiting.

2U also reported spending more than $380 million on marketing and sales in fiscal year 2022 — more than it spent on curriculum, teaching, service, support, technology, and content development combined, said Kevin Carey, vice president for education policy and knowledge management at the think tank New America.

“Marketing is not legally the same as recruitment,” Carey said, “but the two go hand-in-hand.”

FOR: Ability to respond to work force-relevant needs.

ADVERTISEMENT

Some OPM representatives said these arrangements have allowed colleges to quickly respond to shifting work-force needs in fields such as social work, counseling, and nursing, which are seeing labor shortages.

A couple of former students spoke to how enrolling in these programs led to fruitful job prospects. A graduate of Northwestern University’s online master-of-counseling program, supported by 2U, recalled a robust, interactive experience — one that ultimately secured him a clinical placement at the family-counseling center where he now works.

“I started as a skeptic of online learning,” said Parfait Kanam, but “I wouldn’t have become a counselor without this program.”

AGAINST: ‘Corrupting’ effects on program quality.

Another repeated concern was that the bundled-services exception — and subsequent fixation on recruitment — waters down the quality of programs, be it through larger class sizes, lower admissions standards, or a lack of full-time faculty teaching these courses.

ADVERTISEMENT

Examples included the now-shuttered Concordia University’s partnership with HotChalk, where the company reportedly instructed recruiters to approve all applicants, whether or not their grade-point averages met admission standards.

Ashley Bell, a former professor, also detailed Arcadia University’s attempt to build a hybrid physician-assistant program with 2U. She reported that while cohorts typically have between 30 and 50 students, the plan was to have 125 students per cohort.

“The quality of the program was simply not a concern to the OPM,” she said.

Suggestions for other avenues to try.

Speakers wary of the current guidance offered suggestions for updates and changes. These included:

  • Embracing the fee-for-service model where colleges only pay for what they need.
  • Colleges using a separate contractor (and payment model) for marketing and recruitment services.
  • Enforced requirements that contractors are not involved in decision-making around things like admissions standards and program pricing.
  • Requirements (and proof) that vendors’ service costs align with market rates.
  • Updated guidance for accreditors on how to review these arrangements.
  • Clear disclosure requirements to students regarding an OPM provider’s role in a program.

So what’s next? Those who missed the listening sessions but still wish to submit comments can do so through March 16.

The department will then “conduct a careful review of what we hear orally and in writing from the hearings before considering any further steps,” a spokesperson wrote in an email. “We are committed to ensuring that this is a thorough and fair process and doing so will take some time.”

A version of this article appeared in the March 31, 2023, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Admissions & Enrollment Online Learning Finance & Operations
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
swaak-taylor.jpg
About the Author
Taylor Swaak
Taylor Swaak is a senior reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education, covering how institutions are harnessing technology to innovate. She focuses on college partnerships with ed-tech companies and the growing use of artificial intelligence across different administrative functions of higher ed, aiming to hold colleges accountable as well as highlight success stories.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Vector illustration of large open scissors  with several workers in seats dangling by white lines
Iced Out
Duke Administrators Accused of Bypassing Shared-Governance Process in Offering Buyouts
Illustration showing money being funnelled into the top of a microscope.
'A New Era'
Higher-Ed Associations Pitch an Alternative to Trump’s Cap on Research Funding
Illustration showing classical columns of various heights, each turning into a stack of coins
Endowment funds
The Nation’s Wealthiest Small Colleges Just Won a Big Tax Exemption
WASHINGTON, DISTICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES - 2025/04/14: A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator holding a sign with Release Mahmud Khalil written on it, stands in front of the ICE building while joining in a protest. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in front of the ICE building, demanding freedom for Mahmoud Khalil and all those targeted for speaking out against genocide in Palestine. Protesters demand an end to U.S. complicity and solidarity with the resistance in Gaza. (Photo by Probal Rashid/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Campus Activism
An Anonymous Group’s List of Purported Critics of Israel Helped Steer a U.S. Crackdown on Student Activists

From The Review

John T. Scopes as he stood before the judges stand and was sentenced, July 2025.
The Review | Essay
100 Years Ago, the Scopes Monkey Trial Discovered Academic Freedom
By John K. Wilson
Vector illustration of a suited man with a pair of scissors for a tie and an American flag button on his lapel.
The Review | Opinion
A Damaging Endowment Tax Crosses the Finish Line
By Phillip Levine
University of Virginia President Jim Ryan keeps his emotions in check during a news conference, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 in Charlottesville. Va. Authorities say three people have been killed and two others were wounded in a shooting at the University of Virginia and a student is in custody. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
The Review | Opinion
Jim Ryan’s Resignation Is a Warning
By Robert Zaretsky

Upcoming Events

07-31-Turbulent-Workday_assets v2_Plain.png
Keeping Your Institution Moving Forward in Turbulent Times
Ascendium_Housing_Plain.png
What It Really Takes to Serve Students’ Basic Needs: Housing
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin