The Redgate Read On Online Learning

This article from The Street.com highlights that for-profit education’s counter-cyclical model has as much to do with it’s approach to it’s “product” as it does anything else.

Harvard Is Schooled by DeVry, Apollo

David MacDougall

12/12/08 - 09:25 AM EST

The world of higher education has a strange dichotomy unfolding.

Once laughably feeble, online institutions such as the University of Phoenix, owned by the Apollo Group (APOL Quote - Cramer on APOL - Stock Picks), and DeVry University, part of DeVry (DV Quote - Cramer on DV - Stock Picks), are undergoing an enrollment explosion and rapid expansion as renowned brick-and-mortar schools are slashing budgets, shrinking freshman class sizes and freezing development projects.

The reason for this shift is likely driven by the models on which these institutions are built.

The stock-market decline has pinched even the most gaudy of Ivy League coffers. Large university endowments, which are a major source of the schools’ operating income, are concentrated in non-cash investments that have tumbled. Harvard, for example, lost $8 billion, or 22%, of its endowment’s value in the four months since the fiscal year ended in June.

And the Cambridge, Mass.-based university, the oldest in the U.S., may have lost even more. The fund hasn’t yet reported results of its recent private-equity commitments. With these vast pools of capital taking enormous losses, budgets have to be slashed to ensure expenses can be met.

This has resulted in an opportunity for online universities, which are not beholden to donors or endowment performance, to make gains on the old guard of higher education. Read the rest of this entry »

Six weeks ago my partner, Ron Kennedy and I assumed the CEO and COO roles at Chancellor University.  It’s been an exciting six weeks as we begin, with the help and support of others, to shape and mold this school into a premier residential and online institution.  For those who are not familiar with Chancellor University, my introduction for you goes like this:

“At the intersection of history and opportunity lies Chancellor University, a school of renowned distinction.  From our campus in Cleveland, Ohio, we have had the privilege of training titans of business and leaders in society for over 160 years.  Some of most distinguished alumni include John Rockefeller and Henry Firestone.  We also have a 14 year history in online learning. 

With Chancellor University Online, one has the opportunity to earn their degree from an accredited school with such a rich history of academic excellence combined with all the benefits of study online — flexibility, convenience, and one of the most competitive tuition rates of any online school”

And you know what?  The best is yet to come.  Ron and I, along with our team, are working diligently to provide a culture of “undeniable excellence” at Chancellor University.