The Feb. issue of American Demographics features an interesting Q&A with an education consultant. One of the exchanges is about differences between not-for-profit and for-profit higher education institutions. In my view, some of the for-profits get a bum rap for somehow not being good schools. But based on this consultant’s response that for-profits focus on outcomes, I think these schools realize exactly what their customers expect from them.
The link is subscription only, so here is the response from Sean Gallagher, senior analyst with Eduventures of Boston, when asked how good the education is at for-profit schools.
“Many of the national for-profit colleges are fully accredited by the same bodies that accredit nonprofit institutions. But many law and professional accrediting bodies refuse to accredit them. Traditionally, the accrediting process focuses on the inputs such as the number of volumes in the library or the number of professors who have PhDs, rather than the outcomes such as the test scores and loan default rates, which are the focus of for-profits.”
