An excellent article in Monday's Arizona Republic discusses the Apollo Group's strategic move away from targeting older, working professionals in favor of younger learners (18-22 year olds). The Apollo Group, the for-profit education giant and darling of Wall Street (boasting over $2.25 billion in revenue in 2005), operates the largest private university in the U.S., namely, the University of Phoenix, as well as Western International University, the College for Financial Planning, and the Institute for Professional Development.

Since 1976, UOP Online has catered to the underserved adult student population, especially full-time working adults by offering courses in an intensive, shortened format (5 weeks for undergraduate programs, 6 weeks for graduate programs), to small cohorts of students. [This cohort model, in which a group of students begin a course at the same time, with most students staying together through duration of the program up through degree completion, emphasizes collaboration and teamwork -- modes of interaction to which a business professional is no stranger. This approach allows students to focus on one subject area at a time and then build knowledge sequentially.]

However, in the face of slowing enrollment growth, as well as increased competition from other online education providers, they've turned their eye to a new market segment -- "recent high school graduates and other young students, most of them with jobs if not careers, seeking a more flexible alternative to community colleges and public universities" -- through the University of Phoenix's sister school, Axia College.

Write Dawn Gilbertson, "There is no denying the demographic and economic changes or the University of Phoenix's resounding success for more than a decade. What concerns some Apollo watchers is how the company is pinning its turnaround hopes on an unproven concept.

Axia is a big departure from its core business of working professionals completing their degrees or getting advanced degrees, more often than not with their employers picking up all or part of the tab."

Risky business? Yes, considering a 2005 Eduventures survey of "prospective college students among different age groups last year about their interest in online education. Of survey respondents ages 18 to 25, 52.2 percent said they would not consider enrolling in an online program. That is more than double the rate of no interest among those 26 to 40 years old." [Download the survey,
"Assessing Consumer Attitudes Toward Online Education" in PDF format from http://static.wbz.viacomlocalnetworks.com/~wbz/onlineed505.pdf.]

IMHO, this move goes to show that the for-proft industry is highly innovative and quick to rise to the occasion to serve the needs of learners - i.e.

• working with business and industry in the development of new programs/curriculum;
• assisting working adults who have the need/desire to complete a college degree by offering flexible scheduling through a variety of delivery methods, like weekends, evenings, via distance learning;
• increasing access to higher education for other underserved student populations, like minorities or first-generation college students;
• creating responsive, streamlined student services, etc.
  
  

For many reasons, for-profit schools stand in stark contrast to traditional higher education institutions who are large, land-grant and public universities with clear social and/or research agendas, or independent schools with religious affiliations. However, with so much controversy over the "for-profit" status, it is overlooked that many for-profits like University of Phoenix also have sociopolitical missions. [Check out UOP's mission in .PDF format.]

Are you interested in associate's degrees that can be completed completely online? Visit eLearners.com and search (or browse) accredited online degrees by subject or by level.