Thread regarding University of Phoenix layoffs

@620--you are seriously deluded in believing that UOP is going to attract and recruit CC AA transfers in the future. This was UOPs mission twenty years ago, but it abruptly shifted in the late 90s, and actively recruited ANYONE with an opposable thumb. Sorry, ALL for-profits will continue to cater to those who would be better off doing some training for a trade. UOP should change its name to Phoenix Vocational Institute and completely rework their curriculum because a university it is not and it's never been. For-profits will continue to contract, and many will close after the DOE allows students to pursue refunds for the worthless paper diploma they received. This school will have fewer than 100K students by the end of 2018, and the majority will be idiots who were never meant for a four-year education. You must have attended this joke school too. The laughs you hear are at your expense.

@417 - hence the reason AA programs are almost all gone now. Cohorts with community colleges are increasing exponentially. Therefore, we are helping with enrollment increases at those locals while building a direct transfer network into our programs. Everyone might not come here and we understand this but local JC's will help wth regards to increasing the quality of students being accepted into UOP's programs. Short-term certificate programs will also help with more attainable graduation rates leading to essentially same outcomes as the AA's. This means entry level jobs. Once ready to take next step into 4-year degree student would have higher admissions requirements (transfer credits + current work) on the 4 year program. It will decrease enrollments in the short run but long term it can remain at sustainable numbers. All while continuously analyzing market needs when it comes to skill sets. Programs would fall off, new ones would be added. Perhaps retraining workshops or classes will allow for future professional development with our alumni students.

Have you taken any classes?

"It's not the quality of education that's lacking." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

It's not the quality of education that's lacking. It's that many students are not prepared to be learning on a college level. They need remedial classes or should not be in college at all.

Because WGU does not have open enrollment. When Phoenix gets rid of open enrollment, quality of students will improve leading to better chances of those students seeing return on their degrees. Also, being more selective about degrees offered will help. Phoenix's mistake was allowing anyone to be a student, which they did to increase profits because public companies fail when they don't grow grow grow. Community colleges also do this and also have low graduation rates but no one cares because they are government funded and prices are lower.

145- The results speak for themselves. Obviously nobody is gaining even $150 a month benefit from this crapshack or the amounts are much higher and impossible to pay back, which is really the same thing. If this was such a great place it wouldn't be in the situation it is in now. WGU is on the opposite end of the spectrum and not facing all the criticism UoP is, I wonder why?

@188&233 - I respect your opinions and there might have been a time where possibly greed existed. However, those days have been gone many moons ago. Investors have pulled it knowing that there's merely any profits in education and perhaps it's not the right thing to do. Maybe to a small extend it would but not to make absurd figures on people who are seeking an education. The institution made early implementations to increase student support, access, resources such as state of the art classroom/campus environments, labs, mentorship programs, community college cohorts, financial calculators and workshops, graduation teams and the list goes on and on. Probably far more than any other institution would provide. The associates programs were a bust, no more need for those. Move on with programs that work. The restructure is looking quite nice and with much better hope for light at the end of the tunnel for both the students and institution. Again, you're welcome to your opinion and I respect that but there will continue to be a fair need for UOP. They will stand, with just a few others and many will close their doors.

@145. Good post--all bullshit--you are either an evil deluded scum bag or just a plain old garden variety scumbag.

It's not about investors? The students are given the tight tools? Solid outcomes? you need a newer edition of buzzwords 101.

@145--shilling for a for-profit diploma mill is asinine. You state you are behind "manufacturing" graduates. You're either a sub-moron who's overdosed on the Kool-Aid that idiot managers drink or you're shining readers of this site on; I suspect the latter. UOP will have fewer than 125K students by the end of '17, and they will ALL be online by then--that's if they survive the DoE and FTC. Burnt bird.

Well at this point it's not about the investors. It's about the students and their outcomes. the university has the right tools in place to manufacture solid graduates that can perform in a skilled job. If it can focus on truly filling in the market gaps, the students will find quality work, respectable futures and the capability of paying back any small debts. Previously students were taking out large number of loans but this isn't necessarily because the institution is expensive, it's mostly because the student makes poor financial decisions. Ther are plenty of opportunities for students to find part-time and full-time jobs with companies who provide tuition assistance. Pell grants cover up to 6 years of assistance to lower incomes students, that's essentially up to $30k in grant money. A 4-year program is $55k (less in education programs), take the $30k in pell and let's say another $10k in employer reimbursement and you're left with $15k of debt. This leaves you with a less than $150 monthly payment for 120 months. Be smart, make good choices. The tools are there, the advisement is there. If you make stupid choices then you will have stupid outcomes. It's the way of life. Be an adult about it.

. For profits have the same problem community colleges do if they do no have enrollment standards. Graduation rates at community colleges are also low. The problem is that the for profits charge more than community college. Phoenix was relatively respected as a school for working adults until they let anyone in and the quality of students declined. This hurt the school's reputation. But the changes like focusing on programs where students can actually get jobs and reinstating some admission standards will help the school's reputation--if it can make it through and change. But investors don't care about education. They only care about profits.

@028--LMAO For-profit graduate = simpleton. There's no rigor, and the majority of students have sub-moron IQs. Stop playing pretend and go back to your cube and play with yourself.

@998 - not all are needed but UOP is. Just wait till you see growth again. And yes more and more corps need to step up and cover at least a good part of the bill if they want an educated employee. Shouldn't be solely the students responsibility.

For-profit schools are not needed and will die fast unless companies are footing the bill and not teenagers who will never get hired with your garbage degree.

For profit schools are still needed. Whether people like it or not there are a few here to stay. UOP is one of them. They are one of the first to implement better practices and tools to address bad decision making when it comes to student loans and fraud protection. There are still far too many community colleges and traditional universities with these fraud students seeking loans for their own personal gain. Look at regulating those schools and their lack of utilizing some of these tools.

The student debt is enormous and the statistical numbers relating to delinquencies, defaults and those in the pay as you earn category are complicated and difficult to reconcile. Student enrollment is another factor, it being a sort of one trick pony source of revenue. With that said, the industry is not a VITAL key

player in the economy and as such would

not be considered too big to fail. It is apparent that the Obama administration is attempting to placate the industry and the loan holders at the expense of those who hold no political clout, the students. If a company like Corinthian chose to commit suicide which they did, it allowed the administration to look on one hand like they are fighters for truth and justice while simultaneously looking like they are even handed to the industry that they collude with by not summarily cutting off the lifeline. I believe the death of this industry has to be organic in nature. This will mean a slow attrition toward its inevitable demise. The indicators of that demise have been partially published. It's the task of all people of good will to continue to get the message out to family, friends, news media outlets via letters to the editor, local consumer reporters and other influential members of society. Picketing these institutions either singly or en mass is another effective option.

518- Don't you understand yet? The Department of Education and these sham schools are lovers. They aren't going to punish each other, the fondling grasp of Arne Duncan tucks in these welfare leeches at night and reassures them daily that it won't take back the billions it gave them with no strings attached.

Yes, downsizing includes selling off schools and elimination of brands. CECO has done the most so far, getting rid of all but two of its brands and trying to sell off Cordon Bleu. Take a look at the second half of this document..................................................................................https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/for-profit-zombie-college-crash-dahn-shaulis-5980844737412763648?trk=mp-author-card

When you say "downsizing" - closing or selling off brands in the works? Seems likely?

@Anonymous141518, it's hard to imagine any other large for-profit educators going bankrupt in 2015--although more downsizing is in the picture. Education Management Corporation (EDMC) is in the hands of KKR (Henry Kravis) and if they go BK, then the Clinton-4profit connection name may come up. Public information has been difficult to get after EDMC delisted. ESI (ITT Tech) has major problems, but they have political pull (Vin Weber, Richard Blum). The big-time criminal Todd S. Nelson is now handling Career Education and knows how to keep the ship from sinking completely. Bridgepoint has one large owner (Warburg Pincus) who shows no sign of bailing. LINC and other companies need to downsize but show not sign of going bankrupt soon.

debt not dept (apologies)

CK, I agree that the government doesn't want these schools to fail because of the huge student dept issue but how can they investigate and make claims of fraud and let them run forever? EDMC seems to be hanging on by a thread. (With the 11 Billion dollar lawsuit needing some sort of resolution - it has been in limbo for years.) If the government wants any money back it better do something before these schools go bankrupt. Do you think any of these schools will completely fail this year? Overall industry thoughts welcomed. The quality of the education offered (from my experience at The Art Institutes and Argosy - EDMC - seems to be going down by the day.)