Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

jsr

(7,712 posts)
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 12:39 AM Oct 2012

University of Phoenix closing 115 locations

Source: Associated Press

Apollo Group Inc. said Tuesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter net income tumbled 60 percent, hurt by higher costs and declining enrollment at the University of Phoenix. To cope, the for-profit education company plans to close 115 of the university's mostly smaller locations, a move that will affect 13,000 students.

Shares in the Phoenix-based company tumbled nearly 9 percent in after-hours trading.

The closings include 25 main campuses and 90 smaller satellite learning centers. At least one location in 30 states is slated to be shuttered.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/university-phoenix-closing-115-locations-213128283--finance.html

26 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
University of Phoenix closing 115 locations (Original Post) jsr Oct 2012 OP
Good riddance. All the locations of this rip off diploma mill ought to shut down. nt SunSeeker Oct 2012 #1
Probably shouldn't have spent all that money on the Arizona stadium naming rights. Drunken Irishman Oct 2012 #2
Just another rip-off diploma mill. Manifestor_of_Light Oct 2012 #3
Only one I'd ever go to is Full Sail in Florida Hayabusa Oct 2012 #23
Tough shit fujiyama Oct 2012 #4
No Wait! Let Mr. Bain'ster outsource them to China. Left Coast2020 Oct 2012 #5
Cracker Jack box degrees anyway! Good riddens ripper offers. lonestarnot Oct 2012 #6
It's always sad when toilet paper factories shut down Orrex Oct 2012 #7
Great, great news HankyDub Oct 2012 #8
University of Phoenix HAS locations? Ken Burch Oct 2012 #9
One in Mountlake Terrace, WA., off I-5. Very nice lettering on the building. freshwest Oct 2012 #10
They have a big office building here in my town of Marietta, Georgia... Up2Late Oct 2012 #15
Best news today. JackRiddler Oct 2012 #11
Excellent News! Up2Late Oct 2012 #12
End of the article says their stock has fallen by roughly half in the past year. Systematic Chaos Oct 2012 #13
Is this the best news of the day? nlkennedy Oct 2012 #14
You are confusing online education with for-profit education. SomeGuyInEagan Oct 2012 #21
In the late 1950s, the Univ. of Florida did live television classes... Eleanors38 Oct 2012 #24
I agree that Phoenix U; greiner3 Oct 2012 #16
I used to be on hiring committees and all the resumes with on line degree were thrown out. vinny9698 Oct 2012 #17
Ahh yes, McCollege. maddogesq Oct 2012 #18
I think the whole thing should be shut down Tippy Oct 2012 #19
For education, they don't provide a diploma with enough value; for learning, they cost too much FarCenter Oct 2012 #20
Yay! Lets hope this is the beginning Myrina Oct 2012 #22
I noticed the sign was off the building they used to rent on Rte 128. MADem Oct 2012 #25
I guess a lot of people are finally wising up Blue_Tires Oct 2012 #26
 

Manifestor_of_Light

(21,046 posts)
3. Just another rip-off diploma mill.
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 12:47 AM
Oct 2012

Like The Art Institutes, which advertise heavily.

They will take your student loan payments OUT of your Social Security check. That is not a joke. It is true.

Hayabusa

(2,135 posts)
23. Only one I'd ever go to is Full Sail in Florida
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 02:05 PM
Oct 2012

and no, learning or at least watching the WWE production staff do their magic while taping the WWE's developmental promotion has absolutely nothing to do with it.

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Okay, it would be...

 

Ken Burch

(50,254 posts)
9. University of Phoenix HAS locations?
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 01:31 AM
Oct 2012

I thought they were just a website and a football field with no team.

Up2Late

(17,797 posts)
15. They have a big office building here in my town of Marietta, Georgia...
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 05:10 AM
Oct 2012

I'd say it's 15 to 20 stories tall and very close to a very busy stretch of I-75, so it's like a giant billboard. I hope it's one of the locations that close.

Up2Late

(17,797 posts)
12. Excellent News!
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 04:15 AM
Oct 2012

Oh, I mean Aaaaawwwww.

University of Phoenix and the other For Profit "Universities" like it are exactly what America does NOT need, They are Major Rip-offs for not just ordinary students, but they target students who could not get into a regular college, due to poor grades and study habits and worse, they target discharged, disabled returning military men and women, most of who will never finish school due to the Traumatic Brain Injuries they suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan, so they end up dropping out with a ton of Student Loans that they can't pay back or discharge in bankruptcy.

Want to learn more, check out this video from FRONTLINE: "Educating Sergeant Pantzke"

There is a lot to read at the website too if you don't want to watch now, but it's a very good show. The video is only 18 minutes and is sort of an add on to the video I listed below, "College, Inc."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/educating-sergeant-pantzke/

Here is another from a few months earlier from FRONTLINE called: "College, Inc."

Which is all about how these schools are a creation of Wall Street.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/

Both show are excellent and well worth the 55 minutes or so it take to watch them.

Systematic Chaos

(8,601 posts)
13. End of the article says their stock has fallen by roughly half in the past year.
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 04:20 AM
Oct 2012

Glad to hear it. Predatory bunch of assholes.

nlkennedy

(60 posts)
14. Is this the best news of the day?
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 04:52 AM
Oct 2012

I'm very happy to see this organization lose it's value, considering how many poor rubes they've saddled with $70,000 worth of debt and a laughable online degree.

Hey, we all take SOME online classes while we get our education...but not all.

I've seen online schools offer actual high school and elementary teacher education curriculum... Who is going to hire a high school teacher who has never worked face to face with another student or participated in an actual group activity that required real interpersonal communication?

And isn't the point of offering digital textbooks and online instructional delivery to SAVE money? Why is it far more expensive than actual brick and mortar institutions that has real world overhead?

Pheonix, quit clogging our job market with your "degrees", and leaching federal student loan dollars...

If they didnt take pell grants and federal aid, then I wouldnt care...

SomeGuyInEagan

(1,515 posts)
21. You are confusing online education with for-profit education.
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 12:12 PM
Oct 2012

Many very rigorous online undergraduate and graduate level programs exist and have been around for decades from schools such as Stanford, USC, University of Wisconsin (a longtime leader is the area of distance education, even before the Internet existed), University of Minnesota, North Carolina State and many, many more public and private institutions.

In fact, a 2010 USDoE meta-analysis of nearly 1000 studies reported that there is really no significant difference in reported learning outcomes in face-to-face v. online courses (though students enrolled in hybrid courses actually faired better than those enrolled in either f2f or online). Read the report: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

Online courses as part of higher education - both as stand-alone degree programs and as courses combined with f2f courses toward a degree - have a very, very strong track record, proven over time.

The key is enrolling in courses and programs at an institution with a similar track record of rigor and commitment to student learning outcomes.

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
24. In the late 1950s, the Univ. of Florida did live television classes...
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 02:33 PM
Oct 2012

from its Gainesville campus, "piping" them to engineers and aspiring engineers in the Cape area during the Sputnik scare. One of the first precursors (I guess) of on-line instruction.

You still had to know the math and pass the tests.

 

greiner3

(5,214 posts)
16. I agree that Phoenix U;
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 07:48 AM
Oct 2012

Is the shits.

However, my youngest daughter is trying to get a degree from a site at Orlando. I can't find any info if Orlando is one of them.

I did find there are at least 2 sites in Orlando. I do not know which one she is attending (she completed most of her classes online and only moved to Orlando to finish at a site). This may be sort of good news as if one closes there is still the other one that may stay open.

I even looked at the site for the university. It is owned by the Apollo Group. I had forgotten that it is partly owned by the Carlyle Group;

"James Baker III, former United States Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush, Staff member under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, Carlyle Senior Counselor, served in this capacity from 1993 to 2005.
George H. W. Bush, former U.S. President, Senior Advisor to the Carlyle Asia Advisory Board from April 1998 to October 2003."

"Carlyle has been profiled in two notable documentaries, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 and William Karel's The World According to Bush.

In Fahrenheit 911, Moore makes nine allegations concerning the Carlyle Group, including: That the Bin Laden and Bush families were both connected to the Group; that following the attacks on September 11, the bin Laden family’s investments in the Carlyle Group became an embarrassment to the Carlyle Group and the family was forced to liquidate their assets with the firm; that the Carlyle group was, in essence, the 11th largest defense contractor in the United States.[37] Moore focused on Carlyle's connections with George H. W. Bush and his Secretary of State James A. Baker III, both of whom had at times served as advisers to the firm."

I had forgotten about Moore's mentioning this company in the film.

vinny9698

(1,016 posts)
17. I used to be on hiring committees and all the resumes with on line degree were thrown out.
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 08:51 AM
Oct 2012

The members of the committee had PhD's and masters and they were not to let on line degrees be comparable to a real degree.
Education is not just sitting on a computer and inputting data. The interactions, study groups, case studies, class presentations, peer reviews, interacting with instructors, interacting with peers, all of these are crucial to preparing any student to succeed in a real world.
Plus how do you know if that student is doing the work themselves?

maddogesq

(1,245 posts)
18. Ahh yes, McCollege.
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 08:53 AM
Oct 2012

Last edited Wed Oct 17, 2012, 12:11 PM - Edit history (1)

I worked for that company that had Sally Struthers as their pitch person.

These places are diploma mills.

Tippy

(4,610 posts)
19. I think the whole thing should be shut down
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 10:03 AM
Oct 2012

University of Phoenix is in this for the money they don't care about students learning...

 

FarCenter

(19,429 posts)
20. For education, they don't provide a diploma with enough value; for learning, they cost too much
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 11:33 AM
Oct 2012

The cost of learning is dropping towards zero, with Massive Online Open Courseware and free online textbooks.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
25. I noticed the sign was off the building they used to rent on Rte 128.
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 02:44 PM
Oct 2012

I have to say, I was not terribly impressed with their product, to put it kindly.

I didn't think they put out a prepared and truly educated individual.

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
26. I guess a lot of people are finally wising up
Wed Oct 17, 2012, 04:05 PM
Oct 2012

and the U. of Phoenix the past few years just had an insane, Starbucks-level amount of expansion...Something's got to give....

Latest Discussions»Latest Breaking News»University of Phoenix clo...