I came across a press release from Penn
Foster College
today while looking for something else online.
At first, I didn’t see anything that looked all that newsworthy. It mentioned Penn Foster’s ownership and name
change, which actually happened earlier this year. But as I read further, I came across a piece
of info I had never seen before.
It was a quote from Penn
Foster College’s
new CEO, Stuart Udell. According to
Udell, bachelor and master degree programs are in Penn
Foster College’s
future. Currently, Penn
Foster College
offers only associate degrees while Penn
Foster Career School
offers vocational diploma programs. However,
bachelor and master programs likely won’t be offered directly through Penn
Foster College
itself.
"We have reviewed our options and are most interested
in acquiring or merging with a campus-based institution offering bachelor
degree programs,"said Udell, adding, "Our goal is to strengthen a
regionally-accredited institution's traditional campus operation while adding a
national and international distance learning component that would position the
college or university as a nationally recognized provider of quality education."
It would be interesting to see a partnership between a
nationally-accredited institution like Penn
Foster College
with a regionally-accredited university.
It wouldn’t be the first time such an arrangement was made, but they are
not common. This would provide an avenue
for associate degree students at Penn Foster to continue their education at a
regionally-accredited school.
Continuing from the news release…Dr. Richard Ferrin,
President of Penn Foster College sees this as a unique opportunity for a
traditional campus-based institution with the right mix of boldness and vision.
"Capitalizing on our financial resources and marketing expertise," said
Dr. Ferrin, "an institution will be in a position to provide campus-based
and online students with a broader range of programs, flexible learning modes
and accelerated study options.”
It sounds like the folks at Penn Foster have a particular
college in mind to offer both bachelor and master degree programs. Obviously, it wouldn’t be another distance
learning-only institution like Western
Governors University
or American Military
University, both DETC
accredited schools which also hold regional accreditation, because Ferrin
mentioned they are looking for an institution which also serves campus-based
students. Perhaps they are looking at
other for-profit schools like the University
of Phoenix or DeVry
University, which do have
campus-based operations as well as online programs.
No timeline was given for this expansion of Penn
Foster College’s
programs, but it’s nice to see these changes are on the horizon. I hope they are able to implement them while
continuing to offer low-cost, self-paced options to distance learning
students.