NY Times Expose on University of Phoenix: Shades of Yellow Journalism?

The NY Times had a front page story on Sunday about the University of Phoenix titled "Troubles Grow for a University Built on Profits." The story questions the quality of UOPX's education on three fronts: graduation rates, use of full time faculty and faculty quality. The paper misses the mark each time.

Graduation Rates: Is 16% Too Low to Justify Continued Accreditation

UOPX's target market is the adult learner - admissions are open, students can go to school part time, the average age is in the low 30s, a typical student has already dropped out of college, and students are often the first in their family to ever attempt to go to college. So UOPX students have the deck stacked against them - each one of these factors increases likelihood of dropping. I challenge the critics of UOPX's graduation rate to build a regression model to forecast graduation rate based on the variables I listed above. I am willing to venture that UOPX's graduation rate does not stray from what you'd expect given the demographics and socio-economic background of its student body. In fact, I used Education Trust data to look at two public schools with open admissions and a high percentage of students with Pell Grants (indicating low income). Troy State has a graduation rate of 8.3% and Southern U. at New Orleans has a 9.2% graduation rate - so why is the for-profit school the one getting all the scrutiny.

Use of Full Time Faculty

The article states that "About 95 percent of instructors are part-time, according to federal statistics, compared with an average of 47 percent across all universities. Most have full-time day jobs." At Wharton, some of my best instructors were adjuncts who worked full time in industry. I do not understand how full time faculty leads to higher educational quality.

Faculty Quality

I attended two fantastic institutions - University of Michigan and Wharton - and in both cases, I had several professors who were awful. Overall student satisfaction with teaching quality is what was most important - not a teacher in a single course. So I cringe when the NY Times shares one-off anecdotes to express teacher quality rather than systematically surveying a statistically significant sample of students. The following paragraph is absolutely unacceptable as you could find an example of this at any school on the planet: "Robert Wancha, 42, a former National Guard commander who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in information technology at the university’s Detroit campus, said that in a computer course last fall his instructor, Christopher G. Stanglewicz, had boasted that he had a doctorate but did little teaching, instead assigning students to work in learning teams while he toyed with his computer."

Conclusion

There are things UOPX can do better as there are things any other school can do better to increase educational quality. They probably do need to offer more tutoring for students, strive to always increase faculty quality and offer additional financing options to help students fund their degrees. However, there is no reason why UOPX should be a lightning rod for criticism - when much of that criticism is based on unjustifiable tenets - (1) UOPX has a low graduation rate but also has extremely high risk students; (2) faculty quality may be high or low but there is no data to support that faculty quality is not where it should be and (3) there is no data supporting the assertion adjunct faculty provide lower quality instruction.

Comments

[Nelson-Porter]

THE SHOCK OF THE STRUGGLE:

As I study the history of scholars, there is nothing new under the sun! The University of Phoenix has also built an establishment for leaders who WANT to acquire more knowledge to survive (as Noah in the Bible did when he built an Ark). The following are dedicated scholars who were able to complete their Doctorates in record time from other institutions, who deserve recognition and a salute. Why is it any different with the Leader of Online Education?

Jeong H. Kim: "Nonetheless, he was able to earn his Ph.D. degree in two years"
http://www.koreasociety.org/content/blogcategory/84/75/5/5/

Rhee Syngman: "He wants a Ph.D. in two years and the Princeton granted his wish in a letter dated October 2, 1908."
http://www.kimsoft.com/2000/rhee.htm

Toffler (1970), third wave theory stated, “today one billion human beings, the total population of the technology-rich nations, are speeding toward a rendezvous with super-industrialism. Must we experience mass future shock (p. 353)”? Toffler also pointed out:

With its (the computer) unprecedented power for analysis and dissemination of extremely varied kinds of data in unbelievable quantities and at mind staggering speeds, it has become a major force behind the latest acceleration in knowledge acquisition. Combined with other increasing powerful analytical tools for observing the invisible universe around us, it has raised the rate of knowledge acquisition to dumbfounding speeds (p. 31). (Nelson-Porter, 2001, unpublished work)

Darwin (1968) asserted as to why the “struggle for survival” continues:

Here is the true picture of the struggle for survival. It is not merely the fixed battle between one species and its particular enemy. . . . Such strife is an important part of the struggle, but the most intense struggle, is the struggle is ruthless competition between members of the same species for the food, water, light, warmth, and safety that each requires in order to survive. It is a competition so intense that only relatively few members of any species in any generation can emerge as the winners (p. 82). (Nelson-Porter, 2001, unpublished work)

[Dissertation Examples]

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