The number of nontraditional students in U.S. higher education is growing significantly, especially at for-profit postsecondary institutions given their shorter programs and career training. Yet these students have vastly different needs than their traditional-aged counterparts. A mixed-methods study of practical nursing students (n=36) enrolled…

Grounded in self-determination theory, this exploratory quantitative study investigated motivational profiles of bachelor's degree-seeking students at an online, for-profit university. Cluster analysis revealed two distinct motivational profiles (internally and externally regulated) of 158 students enrolled in a bachelor's degree program. The…

In recent years, enrollment at for-profit colleges has fallen steeply due to sustained economic growth, the poor reputation of the industry as a result of increasing awareness of documented abuses, and stronger accountability policies that were put in place during the Obama Administration. However, after years of enrollment declines, for-profit…

The 2020 Democratic Party platform promises a ban on all federal funding for for-profit charter schools, explaining that "education is a public good and should not be saddled with a private profit motive." A look at Academica, a large U.S.-based education service, and their response to the COVID-19 crisis might temper some of that…

This century has been a dramatic era for the for-profit higher-education industry. Enrollment at for-profit schools more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2010, but the sector was bruised and battered during years of clashes with the Obama administration, which sought to rein in abuses such as inflating job-placement rates and using high-pressure…

Academic libraries contribute to student engagement, student learning, and retention; therefore, the effects of improved library services for students may be positive and long lasting. However, despite successful application of organizational learning (OL), a strategic process for improvement, to enhance services in academic libraries, little is…

The purpose of this manual is an introduction to the concept of organizational learning for librarians working in for-profit colleges and universities, though the suggestions and ideas herein are applicable to librarians working in a variety of institutions. Information in this manual was collected through a literature review, as well as the…

This Data Point uses data from the 2016/17 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:16/17). The study is a national survey of students who earned a bachelor's degree during the 2015-16 academic year. Students are surveyed at different time points to study change. The second collection was done in 2017, about 1 year after respondents…

In this report, we focus on the world of charter schools run for profit, a world both hidden and misunderstood. We pull back the veil on tactics and practices designed to reap as many public dollars as possible from charter schools while hiding behind laws designed to keep profit-making hidden from the public's eyes. This report exposes how both…

For decades, the federal government has expected vocationally focused programs in higher education, especially among for-profit colleges, to lead to gainful employment in a profession. In the mid-2010s, the U.S. Department of Education developed gainful employment (GE) regulations that sought to tie a program's federal financial aid eligibility to…

Purpose: China has a long history of private school education. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, nongovernmental education (private school education) once disappeared from Chinese society until its revival following the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. With its development of…

Between 2000 and 2010, U.S. public colleges and universities experienced widespread and uneven changes in funding from state and local appropriations. We find that over this period annual decreases in statewide appropriations led to lower public enrollment and higher for-profit enrollment (with no effect on enrollment overall), as well as…

The research question of this study was: How do the lack of cultural capital and the demand for academic credentials dictate educational opportunities and the enrollment of vulnerable student populations at for-profit schools? This study examined the enrollment of students, especially those of lower-socioeconomic status in for-profit schools. The…

This study is the first large-scale examination of the impact of for-profit colleges on the enrollment and outcomes of students at other postsecondary institutions. Using data primarily from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and a differences-in-differences approach, I estimate the effect of a new for-profit college…

With student loan debt reaching approximately $1.6 trillion, many are concerned that student loans may be the next financial bubble to burst. CARES Act funding and U.S. Department of Education actions led to historically low levels of delinquency in 2020-2021. However, there is concern that issues will balloon as soon as governmental action and…