Blogs:

This week the focus of our President is entirely on higher education. There is widespread criticism on the extent of assistance offered by the government to for profit institutes and universities in our country.

Contrary to popular opinion, however, the National Center for Education Statistics database shows that this is not the case. Analyzing data it is found that students in these colleges in fact receive much lesser tax payer support. These schools are also found to produce better results as compared to the traditional schools through quality education and enhanced access to minority and low income students.

Private for profit today is in fact the fastest growing higher education sector. This is evident with the fact that from the year 1995 to 2008, student numbers increased from 240,000 to 1.8 million. This is a whopping 750 percent increase.

Our country faces a situation where it is imperative to produce skilled and educated workforce in order to face the stiff global challenge. For workers, ticket to prosperity is clearly access to higher education.

A promising trend is the increase in Americans wanting to pursue higher education which is evident with the rapid increase in number of student enrolment. This is because as compared to the high school graduates, those with bachelor’s degree earn at least 83% more.

It is not really clear why there is so much criticism surrounding the private for profit colleges. There is a rapid increase in the number of post secondary students attending these colleges of late. This is predominantly due to certain powerful advantages offered by them. One of the major advantages is the fact that through capital markets, these institutions can finance their expansion. This is much faster and secure than appealing to alumni or to governments like the not for profit and private institutions are forced to do.

The year 1994 saw rules governing granting of Federal grants and loans becoming more stringent. This is when for profit institutions sat up and capitalized by offering upgraded facilities course offerings and faculties. Most of these dynamic and innovative for-profit colleges are flexible and adopt cost effective techniques such as online learning. This helps them scale their enterprises and meet the higher education demand that is economically driven.

These institutions in fact strive to prepare students especially keeping in mind job requirements in various fields rather than focusing on traditional education in liberal arts. These institutions are opted for by those who hitherto have difficulty accessing traditional educations that focus on enrolling disproportionate numbers of minorities and low income students.

Surprisingly, at least two thirds of students studying in for-profit colleges are from the low income bracket and at least half of them are from the minority population. These numbers are higher than what you can see at the traditional private not-for-profit and public universities and colleges.

For-profit private institutions have been hugely successful in tapping students who have limited access to traditional education and there seems to be nothing wrong in this. In fact, by giving enhanced access to higher education for the minorities and low income students, these institutions contribute greatly towards the development of our country.