Proprietary schools: Beyond the issue of profit

2004 ◽  
Vol 2004 (124) ◽  
pp. 63-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher
Keyword(s):  
Proprietary Schools

scholarly journals Academic Libraries in For-Profit Schools of Higher Education

2011 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 568-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinnie Y. Davis ◽  
Mignon Adams ◽  
Larry Hardesty
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Library Services ◽  
Profit Motive ◽  
Proprietary Schools ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Proprietary Colleges ◽  
Considerable Controversy

For-profit schools constitute the fastest-growing sector of higher education institutions in the United States.1 Yet accompanying the phenomenal growth of these proprietary colleges and universities has been considerable controversy over the role that the profit motive should play in higher education.2 The literature of higher education contains increasingly more works about proprietary schools. The library literature, however, offers little in this arena. Through this article, the authors seek to introduce the library readership to U.S. for-profit colleges and universities. We summarize their history and their characteristics, and we explore reasons for their success and present areas in which these schools appear to excel. With regard to their library services and resources, we focus on issues of concern based specifically on our experience with academic libraries in proprietary schools operating in the state of Ohio. Finally, we suggest ways in which these for-profit institutions can address the challenges faced by their libraries.

The Business of Education: Home Study at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin in the 1920s and 1930s

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (9) ◽  
pp. 2496-2517
Author(s):  
Robert Hampel
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Trade Association ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Proprietary Schools ◽  
Home Study ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Extension Work ◽  
Collection Practices

Background Correspondence schools abounded in early 20th-century America. Several hundred for-profit vendors drew the vast majority of the annual enrollments, which peaked at one half million in the mid-1920s. Dozens of well-known universities created home study departments to expand their “extension” work. The handful of good studies of the origins of distance education falls short of what we need to understand this popular alternative to traditional schooling. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study In 1930, Abraham Flexner ridiculed home study at Columbia, and, to a lesser extent, Wisconsin and Chicago. His denunciation of the mercenary spirit of home study reverberates in contemporary discussions of the entrepreneurial aspirations of American universities. This article places the business practices of home study at Columbia and Wisconsin alongside the work of proprietary schools to see if Flexner's criticisms were accurate. Research Design The article compares the advertising, sales, and collection practices of Columbia, Wisconsin, and the for-profit outfits in the 1920s and 1930s. The archival sources for Columbia and Wisconsin include annual reports, financial statements, letters to and from the directors of home study, and other documents. For the private schools, the verbatim transcripts of the annual meetings of their trade association are especially valuable. Conclusions Flexner's critique is misleading. Columbia avoided the excesses that swelled the income and marred the reputations of many for-profit schools. Wisconsin did even more to distance itself from the proprietary firms. The article ends with ruminations on the options available to universities when they undertake work in a field dominated by the private sector.

Who are the students at community colleges and proprietary schools?

1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 (91) ◽  
pp. 51-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xing David Cheng ◽  
Bernard H. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Community Colleges ◽  
Proprietary Schools

Proprietary Schools

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wellford W. Wilms
Keyword(s):  
Proprietary Schools

Institutional Vision at Proprietary Schools: Advising for Profit

2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Abelman ◽  
Amy Dalessandro ◽  
Patricie Janstova ◽  
Sharon Snyder-Suhy
Keyword(s):  
Student Affairs ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Academic Advising ◽  
Student Support Services ◽  
Mission Statement ◽  
Proprietary Schools ◽  
Structure Approach ◽  
Vision Statements ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Institutional Vision

A college or university's general approach to students and student support services, as reflected in its institutional vision, can serve to advocate the adoption of one type of advising structure, approach, and delivery system over another. A content analysis of a nationwide sample of institutional vision statements from NACADA-membership colleges and universities was performed. Findings suggest that for-profit institutions are driven by an outcome-oriented, pragmatic mission statement rather than the complex, compelling vision statement often employed by traditional nonprofit institutions. The customer-service model of the former places priority on student affairs, but in the form of highly centralized prescriptive academic-advising operations. Implications for all academic institutions are discussed.Relative Emphasis: research, practice, theory

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