For-Profits on the Move

University Professional & Continuing Education Association. 1 Dupont Circle NW Suite 615, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-659-3130; Fax: 202-785-0374; Web site: http://www.upcea.edu

Y

19

Higher Education; Research Universities; Global Approach; Entrepreneurship; Technology; Technology Uses in Education; Accountability; Distance Education; Electronic Learning; Virtual Universities; Private Colleges; Information Technology; Educational Technology

0893-0384

Because the globalization of traditional research universities has so far been largely an elite phenomenon, for-profit higher education has become the kind of high-growth worldwide industry that would attract entrepreneurs. The for-profit sector, by contrast, has targeted a vast and vastly different student market: non-elite learners, often poorly served by existing institutions, who are eager to earn practical, career-oriented degrees. And for-profits have grown quickly in part because of their willingness to use technology far more aggressively than their more conventional university counterparts. Growth in for-profit higher education is in part a function of growth in postsecondary education more generally. With the expansion of the global for-profits, the students' needs are being catered to with distinctly new forms of instruction. Hand in hand with the rise of for-profit education, technology is increasingly being used to reach students both within individual nations and across borders. (Contains 33 endnotes.)

ERIC

2012

EJ967806