U. of Phoenix Looks to Reduce Enrollments With New Admissions Requirements and Deep Budget Cuts!

Dear Commons Community,

The University of Phoenix, losing profitability because of falling enrollments and high dropout rates, announced yesterday that it would eliminate most of its associate-degree programs, close more of its physical campuses, and, for the first time, establish academic admissions requirements. As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

“These moves are likely to leave the university, which in 2010 had an enrollment of 460,000, with about 150,000 students by 2016. Phoenix is not all that far from that point now. For the period ending May 31, its enrollment was 206,900, compared with 241,900 a year earlier. The planned changes and enrollment figures were announced on Monday by the university’s parent company, the Apollo Education Group.

Apollo also disclosed that in June it bought a controlling interest in the Iron Yard, a so-called coding boot camp that offers nondegree training. Last year Kaplan Inc., a large for-profit education company that’s owned by Graham Holdings, bought a similar company, called Dev Bootcamp. Such boot camps are ineligible to receive federal student aid, but as they gain in popularity, many observers speculate that they soon might be in some way.”

I think it is good strategy on the part of Phoenix to establish bona fide admissions requirements. It will help to regain public trust.

Tony

 

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