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NYS Freezes the growing of For-Profit
Colleges
PROPHE Summary (by Hirosuke
Honda):
NY State Board of Regents has put a limit on new for-profit colleges in
the state due to the growing number of reported problems. Given that a
rapid increase of their enrollment brings the sector about more than $100
million in state aid, critics say that some existing for-profit colleges
may be taking advantage of enrolling unprepared students for capturing
their financial aid. Indeed, those schools are accused of recruiting high
school graduates from other countries who sometimes cannot prove their
academic records. The State Education Department is expected to enforce
oversight but this can be difficult because of limited staff and budget.
Instead, a state official calls for other accrediting agencies to take
the lead. Similar problems emerge in California, Florida, and Kentucky.
For the full story see The New York Times, January 21, 2006, "New
York Moves to Limit Colleges That Seek Profit" by Karen W. Arenson.
PROPHE Observation (by Daniel
C. Levy):
The article illustrates another example of governmental concern on quality
of private higher education institutions, particularly the new rapidly
growing "for-profit" subsector. Empirical evidence worldwide
often shows that for-profit institutions focus on quantity (number of
enrollment) over quality of their academic provision, and thus are suspicious
through the governments' views. Especially in the United States where
for-profit institutions can gain a lump sum of public money via financial
aid per FTE head count, the number of students can be crucial to their
survival and flourishing in the higher education market. Though far from
all for-profit institutions have a negative reputation, ample cases have
caught attentions from the government and scholars for attempts to stricter
controls and regulations over such profit-making institutions. PROPHE
Working Paper No.5 illustrates further in the emergence of for-profit
sector. http://www.albany.edu/dept/eaps/prophe/publication/paper.html
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