For-Profit Colleges and Universities : Their Markets, Regulation, Performance, and Place in Higher Education

“For-profit higher education is exploding in the U.S. and across the globe. This has produced a torrent of rhetorical claims from advocates and opponents, little of which is based in evidence. At last, a fair minded and comprehensive examination of this phenomenon by a team of top thinkers and researchers. This book is a jewel, must reading for policy makers, practitioners and scholars of higher education, whether in the for-profit or not-for-profit sectors.” –Arthur Levine, President, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and President Emeritus, Teachers College

This book offers a clear-eyed and balanced analysis of for-profit colleges and universities, reviewing their history, business strategies, and management practices; setting them in the context of marketplace conditions, the framework of public policy and government regulations; and viewing them in the light of the public good.

Individual chapters variously explore FPCU’s governance, how they develop courses and programs, and the way they define faculty work; present findings from in-depth interviews with part-time and full-time faculty to understand how external forces and the imperative of profit generation affect faculty roles and responsibilities of faculty; analyze policy considerations that affect FPCUs, including federal regulation and oversight, accountability and assessment, and the legal and regulatory issues FPCUs face internationally; and finally address the notion of academic freedom and the distribution of public monies to FPCUs.

Guilbert C. Hentschke is the Richard T. Cooper and Mary Catherine Cooper Chair in Public School Administration at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.

Vicente M. Lechuga is Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration at Texas A&M University.

William G. Tierney is University Professor and Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He has conducted research on colleges and universities for twenty years, the results of which have appeared in numerous journal articles, book chapters and books. His most recent book is Trust and the Public Good: Examining the Cultural Conditions of Academic Work.

Marc Tucker is President & Chief Executive Officer, the National Center on Education and the Economy, and Co-Chairman, New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce