the University of Phoenix

A while back, I was posting my CV on monster.com, and (I assume because I had entered an MA on my education history) I was directed to a special 'don't you want to apply to the University of Phoenix' advertisement, in which it seemed fairly clear they would be very happy if I did. Ecstatic, even.

I work in the periphery of higher education, and I have heard the snarky comments about the U of P. So the article in the New York Times which called the University 'troubled' came as no surprise. But I did find the article somewhat one-sided, which was why I was so pleased when I ran across a blog post, purportedly by a Dean at a community college, which did an excellent job of analysing both the Times article, and the University of Phoenix. I highly recommend reading both the article, and the post, in that order.

Interesting. And just today I was explaining to someone that higher ed was a pyramid scheme. Still, I've known quite a people to go to UofP and never graduate--in fact, there is only one person I can think that did finish with a degree there and was a completely different caliber of non-traditional student. That isn't to say that the non-trads aren't focused or as driven but it has been my impression that UofP relies on non-trad students who might not be as driven toward education. At the same time, I've heard a lot of complaints about the instructors there--and after seeing some of the syllabi and course content I would have demanded a refund.

I really enjoy that blog.

Interesting! I'd expect that a university would lose at least some of the benefit of hiring part time faculty if those faculty aren't at all responsible for the course content. Wouldn't that just limit the faculty member's ability to add the "how this applies to the real world" perspective to the course, which is presumably why they were hired? (Note: Having heard before about the use/abuse of adjunct faculty at many colleges, I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons to hire adjuncts, with cost probably being at least 3 of the top 4 reasons.) The mention of Rio Salado in the Times article also amused me, as I recall thinking that was the biggest racket back when I was in high school. For a number of classes at my high school, you could pay a few hundred dollars extra and get college credit through Rio Salado. They didn't provide any teachers, nor did they design the courses, or provide content. It didn't seem quite... right.