Who would buy Ashford University, an online school that has lost more than 50 percent of its students and is downsizing key faculty and academic administrators?
[Video above: Dr. Stephen Brewer has reported on the downsizing of key faculty at Ashford and the suspension of the University Senate.]
"A bunch of state schools want online at scale at any cost."...(It's a) race to the bottom. They see their students heading to ASU, SNHU, or the for-profits, and figure if they can get to scale, they will have the time and resources to fix the programs."--anonymous online college expert
Tyton Partners managing director Trace Urdan has suggested that UMass or George Mason might buy Ashford from its parent company, Zovio, but I'm not sure either of those schools would take the risk. In my estimation, Zovio does not have the assets, such as cash on hand, for a safe conversion over the long run. And this lack of assets would make the buyer school more responsible for finances during the conversion.
In my opinion, the most logical buyer would be a school that is WASC accredited (Ashford's current accreditor), large enough to handle the risk, and either does not have a strong online presence or wants to expand its presence. It would also need a president/CEO strong enough and a board and faculty compliant or weak enough to take the bait.
It's possible that a hedge fund or other for-profit firm could create a non-profit specifically for the new school.
In the meantime, Dr. Brewer, is asking for accountability and justice for Ashford University students and professors. After working at the school for a decade, he said that the situation had changed for the worse, "restricting creativity, inhibiting instruction, and demoralizing otherwise talented, motivated, and forward-thinking educators."
For any state university willing to scale up their online presence, be warned. The Kaplan-Purdue University Global deal is not working out, and Purdue bought Purdue Global for $1 and $50 million in free advertising.
Admissions Counselors at 2U perform work much closer to fraud telemarketing than "counseling." The volume bleeds the human element out of every phone call because you will constantly be striving to hit metrics and enrollment goals.
3) 2U programs are godawful expensive. For many programs, 2U also has multiple offerings for the same discipline, so ACs working for the more expensive option are often out of luck if a student is admitted to a cheaper competing program. Kinda hard to convince someone to take out 40k more in loans than they have to. You will be tacitly encouraged to manipulate students into taking on more debt just to meet your goal. They want you to do everything just shy of outright lying. Admissions is a breeding ground for exaggerated claims, half-truths, and lies by omission. In short, you will be kicking water uphill every day in this role, trying to meet laughably unrealistic targets made by leadership.
That's not even to touch on the sham "Core Values" 2U shoves down your throat. They literally have these values in neon tube lights on the walls in HQ. Now, of course every company has their own brand of BS, but 2U is insane about theirs. It is cult-like. People use the phrase “drink the Kool-Aid” unironically. Maybe it’s just me, but using the language of a mass s–c-de in a positive sense...doesn’t exactly sit right. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the core values.
1) ”Cherish every opportunity"–so long as you make 75 calls every day, annoying the heck out of people who just wanted a brochure about the program! Also, if someone has a low GPA or GRE scores and cannot help you meet your goal, that is not an opportunity, so don’t cherish it. This would be an accurate value if it said, "Cherish every opportunity that can make the company money. Forget everything else."
2) ”Be candid, honest, and open" —Honestly, for this one I might as well just post the précis of the pending lawsuit against this company: “[2U] throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the Company faced increasing competition in online education and particularly regarding graduate programs; (2) the Company faced certain program-specific issues that negatively impacted its performance; (3) as a result, the Company’s business model was not sustainable; (4) the Company would slow its program launches; and (5) as a result, 2U’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.”
2U also doesn’t want you being “candid honest and open” with the students. Generally speaking, none of these students even know 2U exists, let alone that it gets a large chunk of their tuition money. You are lying by omission on every phone call, every time you send an email from your university email address. Students assume you are directly tied to the actual campus of the program you represent, because 2U spoofs the phone numbers, so every AC calling from say, Maryland, has an area code local to the school they are representing. Here's another hilarious thing: in September 2019, after mass firing 67 tenured employees and, again GETTING SUED BY ITS INVESTORS, 2U put out a "Framework for Transparency," which asserts, "2U has always publicly listed the degree and non-degree offerings we power," which, while technically true, is exactly the sort of PR/optics sophistry you should expect from this company. Yes, they list their university partners on their website. But at no point in an AC's correspondence with a prospective student is the name 2U ever brought up. Students would have to already know what an OPM is, and what 2U is for this "transparency" to actually do anything. As it stands, this Framework for Transparency looks to me like just another PR maneuver designed to give 2U rhetorical wiggle room to claim they’re being forthcoming while actually being the opposite.
3) ”Give a Damn!” – but not about all those poor schmucks with low GPAs who can't help you meet your goal.
4) “Relationships matter!” - remember where I said above they mass fired 67 employees one day? Yeah, they gave these people no notice– people who had been with the company for years, had helped build the business, and had bought into all of 2U's pompous, self-aggrandizing rhetoric about how they are "changing the world!" True believers, hard workers, in other words, fired en masse with no notice. These unfortunate individuals were literally called into an auditorium, let go, and informed “You’re welcome to work for the rest of the day if you want!”
5) “Don’t let the skeptic win!” — by which they mean don’t question anything or think for yourself, peon! Drink the Kool-Aid! DRINK IT I SAID! SHUT UP AND DRINK IT!!! HAVE YOU MADE YOUR DIALS FOR THE DAY YET?!
6) “Be bold and fearless” — I guess it was pretty bold and fearless to abruptly and callously fire a significant chunk of their loyal workforce, so kudos to 2U on this one. And it was pretty brazen to lie to their investors too. So, all right, I've give them this one.
7) “Make service your mission” — in other words, do good volunteer work and take pictures wearing 2U swag so we can take credit and get those sweet sweet PR social justice brownie points. 2U spends a lot of money promoting itself, getting named as a Great Workplace in magazines, maintaining this veneer that they are an ethical, socially conscious organization, when in reality, like most other companies, business is the first priority. Ethics and social consciousness are a very, VERY distant second. Actually, probably more like a very distant tenth or eleventh. This wouldn't even be annoying if they were just honest about it. I get it. A company exists and makes decisions solely to grow its business. So why does 2U seem to demand that its employees pretend otherwise?
8) “Have fun!” – you know the phrase “bread and circuses?” It means to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy but by diversion, distraction, or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace— by offering a palliative: for example, food (bread) or entertainment (circuses). Thanks Wikipedia. Yeah, that is 2U’s main operating strategy. They do all these extravagant events, e.g. random dance parties in HQ, renting out Six Flags for Halloween, or flying everyone to some destination once a year for company meeting. Superficially these are nice, until you remember that these events are bonkers expensive, and that 2U will then lay off 67 people at a moment’s notice due to monetary concerns. I feel reasonably safe in saying those employees would rather have kept their jobs than gotten to see Flo-Rida live in concert. Moreover, the events, particularly company meeting, are basically thinly veiled attempts at brainwashing, stoking the CEO's messiah complex. They give a lot of ra-ra, gosh-aren’t-we-awesome speeches and make you stand in an auditorium chanting company slogans (again, DRINK THE KOOL-AID, SERF). They get great performers and speakers—Michelle Obama in 2018, for example—who lend specious legitimacy to 2U’s alleged mission and values, but are probably told nothing about the company beyond its claims of being "an innovative tech start up increasing accessibility in higher ed."
9) “Strive for excellence!” — in other words, light yourself on fire daily to keep the higher-ups warm. Break your back to carry the company.
In short, this company is an object lesson in disingenuous corporate doublespeak, bad faith business practices, and dogmatic, cultish conformity. Their core values are a bad joke, and if you are an independent thinker at all, you will not like it here. Also, for the record, I was not fired. I left of my own accord before all the firings and lawsuits started. This is not some disgruntled, terminated ex-employee sounding off. This is just an honest appraisal of how 2U does business from my perspective. Work here at your own peril.
I am currently investigating New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, a system of franchises that provides certified Microsoft and Cisco training and testing. The centers cumulatively receive more than $20 million a year in GI Bill funds for military veterans and an unknown amount from the Department of Defense for military spouses. New Horizons also takes VA Vocational Rehabilitation funds for disabled veterans.
Claims about New Horizons' training and outcomes are impressive, but only if they are true. At this point, I am skeptical about these claims after reading repeated complaints about New Horizons Computer Centers and their business practices.
Several of the New Horizons Learning Computer Learning centers are based where service members and veterans live, including Killeen (163 veterans, $686K), Fort Worth (55 veterans, $445K), San Antonio (102 veterans, $641K), Richmond (111 veterans, $1.33M), Atlanta (44 veterans, $208K), Jacksonville, FL (219 veterans, $2.62M), Anaheim (254 veterans, $1.01M), Las Vegas (29 veterans, $15K), Miami (452 veterans, $6.06M), Colorado Springs (52 veterans, $356K), Orlando (236 veterans, $3.99M), Spokane (56 veterans, $968K), Tampa (171 veterans, $1.65M), and McClean, Virginia (94 veterans, $807K).
Recruiting thousands of military spouses, and veterans (including disabled vets), the New Horizons chain also claims to be "Military Friendly" and to adhere to VA's Principles of Excellence. New Horizons markets to veterans by selling their programs as "GI Bill Training." And they claim to offer top-notch instructors and career consultants. Credible information about gainful employment following the training programs, however, is non-existent.
Despite its claims, New Horizons Computer Centers have received a rash of complaints from veterans using their GI Bill benefits. The most common GI Bill complaints about the schools have been about finances, marketing and recruiting, and quality of education.
Complaints across the internet suggest that the learning centers are not worth the cost. New Horizon's recruiting practices also appear to be unethical, using bogus job offers to make their sales pitches.
While New Horizons courses cost $87 to $100 per hour, community colleges offer computer and IT training at lower costs. Lower priced online training can also be gotten for free or close to free, through One Stop unemployment offices and Groupon.
If you have any complaints about any New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, please email me at CollegeMeltdown@protonmail.com
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Activists, Coalitions, Innovators, and Alternative Voices
In 2011, Sherry Li hatched the idea to create a $6 billion Chinese
Disneyland in the Catskills, with a for-profit college, a casino,
shopping venues, eateries, Chinese-themed rides, and a community full of
wealthy Communist Chinese immigrants...just a few miles away from
nearby villages of American peasants. The ideas were Trump-like, and
like several of Donald Trump's business efforts, most likely to fail
without political ties at all levels, and lots of money. In this case,
Li needed hundreds of millions just to start, most from wealthy Chinese
investors. Together with her business associate Mike Wang, Li paid out large sums of money to establish political ties,
but politicians claim not to know her. In 2019, this fantastic scheme,
whittled down to a school with no buildings, no students,
and one person sitting at a desk, looks more like a swindle. But without
victims coming forward, and most are unlikely to come forward, this
relatively unknown businesswoman will continue what can now be called a
scam.
(Note: I have tried communicating with Sherry Li and Mike Wang,
her media director, several times via phone, email, and social media.
Someone at the Thompson Education Center does answer the phone, and says
"they are out of the country." But this person cannot tell me when they
left or when they are returning to the US. When I mentioned that their
social media was not updated or even monitored, she admitted "we're not
operating anything.")
China City of America is a multi-phased construction project planned for the town of Thompson, Sullivan County, in the Catskill Mountains region of the U.S. state of New York. The current project, Thompson Education Center (TEC), is a proposed college for foreign students, situated in a 573-acre parcel which borders a state-protected wetland.
In December 2011, China City LLC applied to be a USCIS recognized EB-5 visa Regional Center, but the business was never approved by US Homeland Security. The EB-5 immigrant investor program grants permanent residency
to foreign investors in exchange for job-creating investments in the
United States. The 880 Regional Centers sponsor capital investment
projects for foreign entrepreneurs seeking green card status.
Approximately 85 percent of EB-5 participants are Chinese, but there is a
quota system, and waits for Chinese applicants can be as long as 15
years.
More than a year later, China City America publicly
presented its idea to build a 2,200-acre Chinese theme park, hotel, and
casino for an estimated $6 billion. According to The Economist,
the plan "would attract 1.5 million visitors annually" and "transform
the struggling economy" in upstate New York while seducing thousands of
wealthy Chinese investors through the federal EB-5 visa
program. The initial capital investment of $325 million would include
$127.5 million from EB-5 investors, $132.5 million from equity
investors, and $65 million from the U.S. government.
According to
the scheme, each Chinese client would pay a small investment up front: a
$65,000 non-refundable deposit. One catch was that in return, Li's
business would have to quickly create at least 10 new jobs per investor.
Local, national, and international media articles conveyed a variety of
interests and concerns about the project while local officials and
residents expressed both hope and skepticism.
[The initial
presentation by Sherry Li starts at about 7:15 in this Youtube video.
The comments are in some cases brutally honest, in other cases racist.]
Sherry Xue Li, an Oyster Bay, Long Island businesswoman, has been the chief executive officer and
founder of China City of America. Li reported to the Associated Press
that she came to the US in 1991, at the age of 19, and has a background
in development and finance. Everything about her wealth seems to be a
mystery that can only be gleaned from detective work by media outlets
and groups like Defeat China City of America on Facebook.
According to her LinkedIn page,
Sherry Li has a master's degree from NYU and was a Vice President of
Hengli International Corporation (1995-1998), Executive Assistant at
Money Securities (1997-1999), and President of China Financial Services
(2003-2011).
SEC records show that Sherry Xue Li had been
a major shareholder in BRS Group, Inc., a Delaware company dealing in
scrap copper imports to China and China Electronic Holdings. Sherry Xue
Li sold her stake in China Electronic in 2010 and BRS in 2011. In the
video you will see in a moment, Sherry Li also mentions that she has a
young child.
According to Lachlan Markay at The Daily Beast,
"Li rarely, if ever, talks to the press, issuing her statements mainly
through press releases in which she boasts of her meetings with
Republican officeholders and Trump administration officials." The other
officer of the Thompson Education Center is Mike Lianbo Wang who has appeared in a few TEC press releases.
At
a 2013 town council meeting where Sherry Li first pitched the plan, she
stated that "Each dynasty will have its building and will have rides go
with it," China City’s website features golden dragons, and projects an
initial investment of $325 million — with $10 million going to a
"Temple of Heaven," $24 million on a hotel and entertainment complex,
and $20 million to construct a 'Forbidden City.'" In its second meeting
with the town council, Thomas J. Shepstone represented China City.
Shepstone was known in the region as a defender of fracking. According to Paula Medley of the Basha Kill Area Association the project couldn't be developed on the scale proposed by China City without damaging environmentally sensitive wetlands.
In
2014, Town of Thompson supervisor Bill Rieber became frustrated with
Li's constantly shifting plans and the Town of Thompson declined to
approve the project, but the project was granted approval for three
wells in 2016. In the same year, Sullivan county lawyer Jacob Billig
sued China City of America for failing to pay him fees for service. A
settlement was reached out of court for $25,000.
Thompson Education Center
While the larger China City project has stalled, the Thompson Education Center (TEC) is still being planned. The proposed for-profit college campus is on a 573 acre parcel of land near Route 17, Exit 112, which borders Wild Turnpike in Thompson, New York and extends to the town of Mamakating. The mostly undeveloped land for the project is in proximity to an environmentally protected wetland, the Harlen Swamp Wetland Complex. It is also near Monticello, New York,
a village with a poverty rate of about 36 percent. TEC press releases
have promised that the "high-end" project would create at least 20,000
jobs.
Thompson Education Center plans to have a school of
business, a film & arts school, and programs in nursing and medical
training, culinary arts, high school equivalency and executive and
vocational training. The project includes four classroom buildings,
student dormitories, student townhouses and a student center. TEC claims
to have entered into agreements with US and Chinese high schools,
colleges, education institutions and systems to provide students to the
institution. TEC claims also that it has been working with several U.S.
accredited colleges on undergraduate programs and ESL programs.
In
a January 2017 presentation to the Monticello Rotary, Sherry Li claimed
that China City had executed letters of understanding with the Catskill Regional Hospital for its nursing program, and with Phoenix, a Chinese media company that has educated 80,000 students.
According to the Wall Street Journal, in June 2017 Lianbo Wang donated $329,500 to a joint fund between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC). About $86,000 was diverted to the RNC’s legal fund. Politico also reported on the large donations by Wang and Li.
In
August 2017, Thompson Education Center appeared before the Town of
Thompson, with a plan for a campus that would include 732 dorm rooms for
2,508 students, 276 homes for faculty members, and a college
president’s house to be built in a “Founding Trustee Village.” Another
source stated that the campus would also include a community center,
three recreational buildings, three playgrounds, a sports stadium, a
performing arts center, a library and museum, a conference center, a
business center, a medical center and an inn for visitors.
In
September 2017, TEC sponsored a golf tournament benefiting the Catskill
Regional Medical Center (CRMC) Foundation. Ms. Li also visited
Congressman Steve Stivers, Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, in Washington, D.C.
In 2018, residents sought for a revocation of a permit that the Fallsburg, New York
building department had granted for a 9,000-square-foot building,
claiming that the building was not a residential structure. The property
is adjacent to the Thompson Education Center and is owned by Sherry Li.
Epoch Times
reported that Sherry Li was featured in Chinese media promoting the
school "as an 'easy' way to get an American green card." The May 17,
2018 Economist
issue noted that Chinese media said that "investors in the scheme will
find emigrating to America 'so easy.'" But the current wait time for
Chinese nationals to receive an EB-5 visa is a decade and a half, and a
new regulation for EB-5 visas may substantially raise the price for
obtaining a green card.
In January 2019, at the Ivy Football
Association Dinner, Sherry Li's Thompson Education Center said they
planned to provide application counseling, exam preparation and tutoring
for students by The Butler Method. Then in February, TEC announced
plans to offer the Ivy League Prep program, to give students with sports
trauma treatment-related classes, noting that the courses could be
"transferred to Ivy League universities for college credits." At the
time, TEC also reported that the project received three well permits,
and that the construction road was completed, which should not have been
news--the permits had been issued in 2016. The for-profit college with
no buildings and no students also reportedly signed contracts with
schools in China "to deliver 2,700 nursing program students every year."
On a trip to Thailand in March 2019, Ms. Li met with the president of Thonburi University
and discussed educational cooperation between TEC, its partners schools
and colleges, and the Bangkok school.
In the same press release, Sherry
Li's organiation reported that
"College Town covers an area
of 650 acres, with over 5 million square feet of the construction area
for educational campus and ancillary facilities. TEC has partnered with
many prestigious universities in Unites States, planned to establish
courses including, business schools, media arts, medical academies,
culinary, various MBAs, special license training, high schools and their
affiliated facilities to create an intelligent high-end university
community. In 2019, Thompson Education Center will work with
International University Alliance under the Ministry of Education to open 50 Thompson Education Center Extension campuses in China."
Meanwhile
the Facebook and Twitter accounts for Thompson Education Center lie
dormant: a giveaway that something is very wrong with this picture.
While I was updating my College Meltdown bibliography and writing a review of College is Bullshi*t, I found an enormous number of Youtube music
videos dedicated to student loan debt. Scholarly sources are fine, but
they don't get people to move. These videos vary in quality and genre,
from blues to rap, to pop, heavy metal, and country. But you gotta
listen. My favorites are Eatin' Me Alive by Ramy B. and Dee-1's Sallie Mae Back. An extremely popular tune, Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots, has just one line about student loan debt, but definitely hits on the consequences of youth and making choices.
Works Cited
B., Ramy. “EATIN' ME ALIVE (STUDENT LOAN RAP).” YouTube, YouTube, 10 Feb. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=C44O_GUtcQs.
Cornell, Charles. “Student Loans, You've Got Me By The Balls - Charles Cornell.” YouTube, YouTube, 12 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aJWUA3-E0E%2Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv.
Dee1music. “Dee-1 - Sallie Mae Back (Official Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Feb. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqbXQa05Z6c.
ebonysongstress. “Student Loan Song by C. Richaude.” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Jan. 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILcTrUHqHa0&list=PLBiTf7f_nVjgtZ7HCrrPEHY9xvIIHSkXd.
Grosscup, Ben. “‘Four Years of College’ (Parody of ‘Sixteen Tons’ by Ben Grosscup).” YouTube, YouTube, 28 Feb. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sWosZ2qshc
“Twenty One Pilots: Stressed Out [OFFICIAL VIDEO].” YouTube, YouTube, 27 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXRviuL6vMY.
Wilson, David. “Simple Mind (The Student Loan Song) by David Wilson.” YouTube, YouTube, 6 June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDVtuoPmTPQ%2Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv.
?v=_sWosZ2qshc.
Pictures speak louder than words. And emotions move people more than rationality. And the harsh words that Mike Newman (aka Ekim Namwen) speaks in his video "college is bullsh*t" express the anger and depression of a 30-something year old Ohio State graduate who gets it. While Newman's work is thoughtful and original, the emotions are common in many once-aspiring graduates from state flagship universities who never quite get ahead.
If you can deal with the critical tone and the emotions expressed in this video, it's well worth looking at it from start to finish. If not, start looking at it from 28:30. Newmans's intent has been to finish a serious decade-long documentary on higher education, but two recent suicides at OSU led him to speak out against the madness of higher education: its outrageous costs, its greedy anti-labor administration, and its uncaring bureaucracy.
The College Meltdown has been going on for more than a decade, and things are getting worse. Books critical of higher education could fill a book case or two. That's admirable. And of course, there are some great exceptions amid the meltdown, such as free community college, and potential free market innovations such as TuitionFit, but the general direction of US higher education is downward.
We
can't blame the problems of higher ed just on higher education. US
inequality has been increasing for a half century, and it displays
itself across society, from "savage inequalities"
in the college pipeline to how end of life is medicalized and made so
expensive, at the expense of state and federal budgets.
But there has to
be some recognition of the damage that has been done by business minded
college administrators and college boards, by the madness of crushing student loan debt and underemployment, and the system that turns almost everything good into sh*t.
As a military veteran
working to expose some of the most predatory practices by subprime
colleges, the idea that anyone at the US Department of Education, US Department of Defense (DOD) or
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would say "Thank you for your
service" rings hollow, especially on the 4th of July.
The US government has systematically shirked its oversight of subprime
colleges that target servicemembers, veterans, and their families,
especially during the Trump Administration.
I have to give some credit to President Obama for trying to do something against these schools, with Executive Order 13607, but much of that work has been undermined by DOD and VA officials.
I have filed a FOIA and a complaint about Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
to DOD, but have been told not to hold my breath. And I have also filed a
complaint with the VA, but have even less faith that they will do their
job.
In
an recent article, titled "Enrollment declines, campus closings,
economic losses, and the hollowing out of America," I posted the
state-by-state enrollment drops from 2011 to 2018. These numbers are
posted here.
Alaska was at the top of the list, with a 31 percent drop in
enrollment. However, there are other states with significant enrollment
losses.
Besides Alaska, New Mexico, Hawaii, Michigan, Illinois,
Oregon, Missouri, West Virginia, Montana, Minnesota, Arkansas,
Louisiana, Kentucky, Indiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
Wisconsin have had the largest enrollment losses. What states do about
the losses has varied, from austerity and tax cuts on the right side to
prison reduction and social investments, such as free community colleges
on the left.
What drives austerity, and higher education cuts, depends on many factors, and politics are important. State economies,
movement of people and companies out of state, obligations to K-12
education, Medicaid, and infrastructure, enrollment losses and tax
structures also play a large part in how dramatic these cuts will be.
Alaska's recent cuts are a worst case scenario, but that doesn't mean we won't see
dramatic funding cuts in other states and counties in the coming years.
I was reminded by one College Meltdown reader that Alaska was not the first state to feel Republican slash and burn tactics. Louisiana, under Bobby Jindal, felt it.
While
Democrats and Republicans are diverse within their own parties, we can
take a first look at the situation by charting higher education
enrollment and state control and make the hypothesis that states with
the largest enrollment losses and Republican control of state politics
are most vulnerable to austerity, at least in the short run.
My
first guess for the most vulnerable states? Missouri, West Virginia,
Arkansas, Kentucky, and Indiana, and as many as 18 other states, because they are Republican controlled.
But many others will have to make tough economic decisions, to increase
taxes, reduce funding, and to make cuts elsewhere. This is especially
true in states like Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The problem with
raising taxes is that many people don't like to pay taxes, and they see higher education as an individual choice rather than a public investment. In some cases, they also see (or hear about) administrative largesse and university amenities that border on insanity.
Smart leaders will look for smart (and just) answers.
For
a decade and a half, CEO Doug Becker went on a buying spree of colleges
across the globe, with a boatload of famous people to pitch for them.
But since 2015, Laureate has sold or shut down more than 30 schools, and
it faces enormous headwinds in the countries where it continues to
operate. 2018 and 2019 have been particularly difficult. This year, LAUR even threatened to sell its big US moneymaker, subprime Walden University.
Brazil, Laureate's largest segment, is facing reducing revenues after student aid was cut. Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro, who is terrible for the country
is a wild card at best for Laureate. In earlier years, someone in the
company might have been able to bribe officials, but those days are
probably gone.
While
Laureate has continued to pare down its $3.5B debt to just above $2B,
most of its profits have come from selling off more than 30 schools.
Here's a list of the schools it has sold, closed, or lost contracts with since 2015. More are
likely to be sold off in 2019 and 2020. Laureate sold off Bilgi University, but forgot to mention the terrible details.
Centro Universitário do Norte – UniNorte (Brazil) (sold 2019)
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
XJTLU (China) (Laureate's online program partnership with the
university was discontinued in 2018. The degrees were awarded by
University of Liverpool.)
European University--EUC (Cyprus)
Universidad de Las Americas--UDLA (Ecuador)
École Centrale d’Electronique (France)
École Supérieure du Commerce Extérieur (France)
Institut Français de Gestion (France)
BiTS--Business and Information Technology School (Germany)
Pearl Academy (India) (in sale negotiations as of May 2019)
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies--UPES (India) (in sale negotiations as of May 2019)
Domus Academy (Italy)
Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (Italy)
Universidad del Desarrollo Profesional--UNIDEP (Mexico)
Université Internationale de Casablanca (Morocco)
University of Liverpool
(Laureate's online program partnership with the university was
discontinued in 2018. All degrees were awarded by University of
Liverpool.)
University of Roehampton
(Laureate's online program partnership with the university was
discontinued in 2018. All degrees were awarded by University of
Roehampton.)
