Marketplace

This has been going on forever. Only in America is the next generation seen as fodder for fraud. I, for one, am sick of tolerating this cannibalistic business culture. Is no one in power willing reign these criminals in?

The existence of “university of phoenix” reflects the destruction of higher liberal arts college / university education in America, and a selling of employment indulgences, in other words, a business fraud.

The intellectual rot in K-12 education is finally pervading America’s higher education system simply because a broad American higher education system is no longer needed to benefit the people at the top. The wealthy elite just need a few the elite private universities to make social connections among members of their class and find a mate.

Just like the textile industry, then high tech industry higher education and training is either being offshored or imported at bargain basement prices. That shouldn’t surprise, after all, higher education is a labor-intensive activity (when properly done) just like manufacturing. Some of America’s elite universities have set up shop in Mumbai and major cities in other “developing countries” as a form of market extension to both provide the same social services to foreigner upper classes, and to crank out low cost “university trained” graduates for American as well as Indian and other foreign corporations.

Macro economists have forever harangued us on the need to support higher education as the basis for continued R&D, the continued technological advances it brings and the creation of higher paying jobs for citizens (a symbiotic economic relationship). But in a world of free flowing capital and ready supplies of cheap labor (over two billion workers may have entered the global labor market since 1991) corporate America no longer sees any need to invest in the education of their fellow Americans. So eager albeit perhaps unqualified young Americans become prey to yet another perverse form of market fundamentalism. And just to make sure they understand, the price of attending a decent liberal arts college or university makes the decision for them

What ever happened to Caveat Emptor? Why do we not expect Rambo to read the forms she signed. If she is on the hook for a student loan I can almost gaurantee that she sionged something that clearly stated she was borrowing money. I speak with U of P grads and drop outs on a weekly basis and I have yet to hear one of them tell me they borrowed money they did not know they borrowed. I highly doubt that U of P was the only entity that has “duped” miss Rambo or “fooled” her into buying something she did not need or want.

Private, for profit education would not exist if there was not a market for it. More people are ripped off by car sales every day than For-Profit Education. But we expect our kids to make wise consumer purchases on the car lots, don’t we?

Ned’s right: caveat emptor! Let the kids learn the hard way. Serves them right for pursuing an education in America, while uneducated. Let them eat cake!

No doubt there’s plenty of demand for education. But does that justify our tolerance for these fraudsters systemically ripping off students.

Rather than raising our kids to beware of rampant, omnipresent fraud in our society, wouldn’t it be better to root out the systemic fraud which hurts us all?

There are several important differences between something like an auto loan and a student loan. Auto loans have built in collateral. If the borrower defaults, the car can be taken back. The car can be sold to alter the borrowers financial status. And the issuer of the loan usually will avoid providing the loan to borrowers without a likely potential to repay the loan.

Most student loans are initiated without meeting any of these conditions, presumably to benefit the student borrower. And in exchange for these “benefits” to the student, the government has severely restricted the borrowers ability to discharge these loans. These restrictions make the student loan very different from an auto loan. A young borrower is very unlikely to be able to recognize all the ramifications of entering into this type of arrangement that could potentially rule the borrowers financial life long past their productive adult years and into retirement.

If the government is going to so strictly limit ones ability to get out of a disastrous financial relationship, there needs to be some higher hurdles to cross to get into one, as well as stricter controls and monitoring of the predators.

I work for the University of Phoenix and have the opportunity each and everyday to work with our wonderful students. I also graduated from the University with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration. I was very taken back and disgusted by this current piece done by Marketplace. I love working with students and helping them achieve their goals. So many people today do not have the luxury to go to school full time due to work and family obligations. Without higher learning institution like the University of Phoenix these individuals would not have the opportunity to reach their educational goals. This piece completed by Marketplace is only focusing on those few instances of counselors not being up font and honest with students. These issues and others are found in all higher learning institutions. At the University we are taught over and over again to make sure we are always looking out for the best interest of the student. We are very conscious of our student’s needs and their financial situations. Each student has 3 different counselors that they talk with, and each has the responsibility to make sure the student’s educational needs have been met. When it comes to financial aid our counselors are taught to make sure their students are borrowing financial aid responsibly. If students have other forms of tuition assistance such as tuition reimbursement or scholarships, we instruct them to use those funds first. If these other forms of funding do not cover the entire tuition cost, and additional financial aid is needed, we will then help them apply for the funds they need. Our counselors make sure that our students know they are taking out student loans and the responsibility that comes along with borrowing these monies. When a student completes the application process with the university they have several areas that they must indicate they are taking out both student loans in order to pay for their tuition. The student must even indicate on their FAFSA that they want student loans. Before a student starts they discuss financial aid with one of our excellent financial aid counselors. The counselor discusses all of the financial aid information with the student, what they are taking out, and if they understand everything. If someone can actually go through 2 years of school not knowing they are taking out student loans, especially after filling out all of the necessary paperwork, and updating the same paperwork the following year, I do not understand how that could happen.

When it comes to individuals discussing fraudulent recruiting tactics at the university, I am just as upset as the next person. There are always a few bad eggs in a group, and it is really sad that these individuals had to use these methods to try and enroll students into the university. Just to inform you, we do have a compliance department that is in charge of listening to all inbound and outbound calls to ensure the right information is being given to our students. Student success in our program is number 1 on the list at University of Phoenix. In fact, we have just rolled out a new workshop program that allows the student to sign up for a free new student workshop so they can see if this is the institution for them before they even get started in their first class.

As far as the difficulty of the classes and the curriculum, I have taken both classes at a traditional university and classes at University of Phoenix Online, and I would say the online classes were more difficult hands down. The example in the marketplace story talks about a class a student completed in which one of her assignments required her to state what items she would use if she was on a deserted island. The student said she would “never use this information” in her life (which is a really funny statement because you could say that about a lot of what you learn during your entire journey through education.) The course she is discussing is one of the first two classes that all students must take at the university. Many of our students have not been in school for year’s even decades. Due to this fact, our first two classes have been developed to help our particular students get familiar with our online learning environment. We want to make sure our students get familiar with our learning structure before we move them into our more difficult curriculum. I implore anyone to take any of our upper division classes and tell me they are easy, especially when you are juggling a full-time job and two kids.

A few final thoughts:

• University of Phoenix is a regionally accredited institution of higher learning • University of Phoenix has over 450,000 students • University of Phoenix has over 500,000 graduates • University of Phoenix employees over 25,000 instructors • University of Phoenix has gives a discount to our men and women fighting for our country so they can earn their degree while defending our freedom. • University of Phoenix has ground campuses in 38 states • University of Phoenix is among the top ten colleges that uses green energy

Thank you for your time.

I’m glad NPR is doing a series on this type of thing. The need for private schools came about because of the deconstruction of traditional four-year and two-year schools (both public and private). At the very least, the “non-traditional” schools are being required to calculate job placement statistics. When will the same standard be applied to all programs? The sad part for students is, they’re lured in on the skewed statistic that college graduates make more money than non-college graduates without realizing that even if you don’t complete a program, you’re still on the hook for thousands of dollars of student loans. It was an amazing phenomenon when the maximum grant amount was increased 4 years ago in order to increase access for more financially struggling students. Almost immediately, colleges raised their tuitions in almost a perfect percentage to soak up the extra grant money. Yes, the practices revealed in this story are awful but the bigger story is how this type of thing has been going on and continues to go on in all of higher education.

I used to teach at a strictly for-profit “college” (Southwestern College in Cincinnati). It was painfully clear that the “college” had only one goal - make as much money as possible. Lots of students got grants, but many got loans as well. Most of the students were nowhere near ready for an education.

The academic rigor was comical. I routine taught classes in fields that I had absolutely no experience. That didn’t seem to matter as long as we passed the students along and brought new ones in. The recruiters (salesmen) were treated like stars, even though they were, by far, the least educated staff members of the company.

Quality of instruction was laughable and irrevevant. Instructors were regarded as a necessary evil - unavoidable if your product is education. From that experience I have concluded that for-profit education is among the most nefarious of industries. The company could have been in any line of business - used cars, appliances, or telemarketing and would have operated the same way. It just happened to be in the “eduation” business.

Thanks NPR for bringing this problem to at least some people’s attention. There are predatory colleges and universities. Many of them are for profit institutions like the University of Phoenix. Some are even worse. However, there are accredited private nonprofit colleges (I work for one) that offer a second chance to people who didn’t go to college right out of high school. We offer distance education and our tuition is reasonable. However, we don’t have the marketing budget of the for-profit schools. How can the buyer beware if the buyer can’t find the alternatives? It would be great if there were a follow up highlighting some of the alternatives to Phoenix and Kaplan.

As a UOP graduate,and employee this commentary could be the furthest from the truth. Prior to becoming a employee I was a student for 3 yrs. I was explained several times financial aid was part borrowed money, and grant monies subject to yearly application for qualifying. I share this with each of my potential graduates, and UOP mandates that each enrollment counselor, finance counselor academic counselors discuss responsible borrowing with students. If it were not for UOP structure I would never been afforded the opportunity to complete my degree as a single working mother.

Here we go again. This is yet another case of Liberals attacking a legitimate business for being successful. It is painfully obvious that anyone who has the responsibility and smarts to do well for themselves especially during an economic downturn, is thought of as a criminal by those who are searching for someone to blame.
Why don’t Michelle Rambo and other people take responsibility for their actions? Anyone who has attended any college or university and used student loan funds knows that they are doing so. If not for the information that they need to provide to obtain the loans, than for the documents that they need to review and sign. What about the yearly tax statement that a student loan recipient receives? I wonder if the term, Master Promissory Note is a bit of a clue. How about going through the process of selecting a lender like Sallie Mae or better yet a bank???
Blame, Blame, Blame. Accept responsibility Michelle. Better yet, finish your degree and see what that does for you as far as getting a decent paying job so that you can pay for the cost of your education. Unless of course you think that it was just another hand out.
I would like to know the whole story. I would truly like it if Market Place would do a balanced story. No offers to air any success stories of a half of a million University of Phoenix students, nothing from the half of a million graduates, and one short sound byte from a University of Phoenix representative. Anyone can see that this story is so slanted that if you tried to rest the truth on top of it, it would slide so far to the left, and the whole thing would come crashing down. Regarding your former University of Phoenix employee Burke and his expected statements, I would like to know why he is no longer working for the University. What stake does he have in this? Every major college or university uses recruitment tactics and some can be pretty high pressure. Especially if you are an above average athlete or academic which we know brings money to the school. It seems to me that the University of Phoenix does not discriminate. I wonder how many working mothers with sub average grades have been recruited to attend a division one university.
University of Phoenix offers people who couldn’t otherwise achieve their goal of obtaining a higher education the ability to do so. But again, it doesn’t seem that Market Place will have the honesty or integrity in their, “reporting” to show that either. If Market Place wants to accuse the University of Phoenix of un-ethical behavior without reporting the story fairly, then Market Place themselves are guilty of ethics violations regarding the standards of journalism. But I suppose that’s not their fault right?

Oh come on. Most people who got themselves into the housing problem did so knowing they couldn’t afford their home when the arm was up on their loan. Or they thought they would make plenty of money on their investment and sell their home to make a pretty penny. They signed the docs, they agreed to the terms, they gambled on the investment, and when things went badly they cried and bitched about it until the gov’t stepped in to give them a handout. People like Rambo and these home buyers you talk of need to take a long hard look in the mirror and not look long and hard for a handout.

University of Phoenix is a successful company that, according to many sources, has helped thousands of people that didn’t have the time to earn their degree do so.

So hey, let’s go ahead and spread the wealth around!

Oh, and if this report is all about “for profit” institutions with an S, why does it only single one out? Great job in really doing the story justice Marketplace or should I say Pinko Commie Rag.

I graduated from University of Phoenix and I have to say I am very hurt and upset by this article. If you would have been there at the graduation ceremony with the thousands of other graduates, and heard their stories of how they would have never earned their degree without UoP, you would see things in a whole different light. The curriculum was difficult, the classes were lively and the degree was very much earned. I am so sorry that I was unable to attend a traditional university. I am so sorry that I have a wife, two kids, and a full-time job. I am so sorry that my parents did not have the funds to send me to state college. I am not sorry for graduating from the University of Phoenix!

I am a Phoenix!

Obama should demand that University of Phoenix return all the tuition (with interest)to those who attended this greedy institution. I used to work there and know of the poor quality of education.

Wow Carol, I have worked for UoP for 5 years and love it. Sounds to me like you have other issue related to working for the University. Why is it that any company out there that is successful is considered greedy?

Marketplace yesterday aired an uncharacteristic piece of journalism for the highly regarded American Public Media—a wholly imbalanced, subjective, salacious story about University of Phoenix. In an unusual move, Marketplace outsourced its investigative reporting to ProPublica, a partisan and experimental investigative newsroom known for “muckraking tactics” and “hatchet jobs.”

To read University of Phoenix’s entire rebuttal, go to http://www.upxnewsroom.com/ . To submit a comment to Marketplace.org, go to http://www.publicradio.org/ . For an in-depth Capital Research Center report on ProPublica, go to: http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/v1241117859.pdf .

I was a single mother trying to move up in the corporate ladder that led me to UOP. I had unfortunate dealings with UOP. The turn around with employees at UOP leave many gaps in streamlining correct information, follow through, and actual knowledge on how to do their jobs! The Finance department dropped the ball and I spent to much time trying to point out the mistake that was made while UOP did their best to proctect, lie and cover up their mistakes in handling a student loan. I learned that the student loan was mis-processed by some new individual that was given a finance position who was not qualified to be in. This happened in 2002 and I am still trying to work out this mess with the college. When I think of UOP I think of fraudulent, greedy, and shady. I would like to see a report on how many of UOP graduates are graduates from a company that sported the bill versus graduates that had to pay out of pocket!