Education From Corporations-Is This A Good Idea?

gizmoguy4242 asks: "notHarvard.com is pioneering a new business model by offering free educational courses in an effort to 'attract new customers, reduce customer acquisition costs, keep them on-site longer, and drive revenue.' As an example, Metrowerks set up a site called 'codewarrioru.com' where participants can 'learn how to program in C++' and gain other valuable skills. 'The university site is driving revenue by giving users a context in which they can both learn about the product and make purchases when appropriate.' Obviously, the notion of free, quality education is attractive, especially in a 'do-it-on-your-own-time' medium. On the other hand, the privatization of education raises all sorts of philosophical questions: can corporations -- whose fundamental interest is economic -- maintain academic neutrality when doing so negatively impacts them? Can they be trusted to present educational ideas from an objective standpoint, or is this the precursor to corporate-driven thought control?"

Comments

There's already a profit motive.

[rjh]

How much does a private college cost nowadays? The one I graduated from is running around $25,000/yr nowadays. Nonprofit or not, that's a lot of money. It's so expensive, in fact, that the vast majority of students have to get financial aid just to attend school; again using my alma mater as an example, $8,000 a year of my tuition went to subsidize other people's educations. (I was, regrettably, a full-pay student. After graduation the alumni office got in touch with me asking me if I'd be willing to make a donation to the scholarship fund, and I got a little bit irate with them--after all, I donated $32,000 to the scholarship fund over four years and I didn't even get a thank-you note.)

If there aren't enough full-pay students, then there have to be cutbacks in the amount of financial aid the college gives; and if that gets cut back, the college winds up serving fewer and fewer students. And since the cost of running the college is amortized over the entire student body, if the student body shrinks, rates go up--sometimes dramatically.

When I applied at my alma mater, it was considered to be a very selective school. The average ACT score was a 28 or so, and SATs were similarly high. Over the last several years, financial pressures have forced the college to lower its admission requirements until it is no longer a selective college--basically, "if you graduate from high school and you're a full-pay, we will walk into Hell itself if that's what it takes to get you in the door".

Has the academic mission been corrupted by money, and the financial crunch which all educational instututions find themselves in? Damn straight. Is it anybody's fault? Not really, no. It's just one of the big rules of life. Money changes everything; if you have money, you have a lot more options than if you don't have money.

If corporations want to offer education, will the education they offer be affected by their profit motive? Yep. Just like the students they accept will be dictated by their target markets.

But where Metroworks U. might be affected by "if they aren't buying $500 a year of Metroworks products, kick 'em out, and if their OS is a platform which we don't support, don't accept 'em", private colleges say "if they aren't filling our coffers with $X, decline to invite them back for another year."

Nonprofit institutions have to worry about the bottom line, just like everyone else.