Thoughts on Purdue purchasing Kaplan University? I honestly have no idea what to think about it. I love how innovative Mitch has been and I think he could go down as a truly visionary leader. But this one was way out of left field for me.
OT - Kaplan University
- Thread starter BoilerBulldog
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Mitch is good for purdue. Time will tell if this is good. But I suspect it will
It will not be called purdue and will not be a purdue degree. The timing is such...that if an increase in jobs is around the corner...then this might be a good thing. We shall see..CORRECTION now I understand it could have some tie to the Purdue name.
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I had a lot of issues with Mitch as a governor but think he has been an absolute home run as a president. Very visionary and innovate. This moves leaves me scratching my head though. Do we really want to be a leader in lower quality on-line education (sorry if that offends anyone)? Why risk the Purdue brand with that? He talked about providing access to quality education to millions around the country and specifically linked that with our land-grant mission. I believe he may be overstepping our charter though. We were never intended to be the land-grant university for the entire US, just the state of Indiana. Other states have land-grant universities that are responsible for providing access to high-quality post-secondary education for their residents.
I love the whole tuition freeze concept he has implemented and also the Purdue Tech high school in Indy, but this feels like a major overreach.
Purdue has become a leader in providing value in higher education as demonstrated by the tuition freeze. Education, specifically university education, has seen tuition costs increase faster than the general rate of inflation while every other information-based industry has seen costs to customers dramatically reduced. This may be an avenue to provide a valuable service to Indiana (possibly the country) by providing value-based distance learning.
Here is what I said on the topic on the general discussion forum:
I don't know how tied to Purdue this is. I also don't understand the financials.
Daniels has made some big bets on the status quo (honors dorm, new building, state street project, etc)
I see this deal mainly as a hedge against the quo crumbling. If brick and mortar universities fail, Purdue still has some elite programs at WL. But they would also have a large offering in the new medium.
I don't know how tied to Purdue this is. I also don't understand the financials.
Daniels has made some big bets on the status quo (honors dorm, new building, state street project, etc)
I see this deal mainly as a hedge against the quo crumbling. If brick and mortar universities fail, Purdue still has some elite programs at WL. But they would also have a large offering in the new medium.
Yeah I like what he is doing but I fear that we are creating an assembly line process to a Purdue degree. I don't want the degree devalued in the process of trying to make college affordable for all. There still need to be academic standards. Anyone who has any experience with manufacturing or business in general knows the best way to keep the unit cost down is to reduce overhead by increasing volume.
I think this move was mostly done so that Purdue would be able to offer online education to its main student population without having to go through the costly and lengthy growing pains of building its own solution. That's all good.
The question for me is what happens to Kaplan's current offerings. I don't think many people will be happy if they continue with their exact same offering but under the Purdue name. My hope is that now that Purdue is in charge and the main concern will no longer be shareholder profits, that the standards can be increased and the mix of degrees offered will be in line with where there is current employment demand. And hopefully the thing is branded in such a way that it enhances rather than detracts from the main Purdue brand.
This is a total CEO-style move from Mitch. I don't think that it's either inherently good or inherently bad; it will depend on the execution. Based on his track record, I think I trust Mitch to pull this off.
The question for me is what happens to Kaplan's current offerings. I don't think many people will be happy if they continue with their exact same offering but under the Purdue name. My hope is that now that Purdue is in charge and the main concern will no longer be shareholder profits, that the standards can be increased and the mix of degrees offered will be in line with where there is current employment demand. And hopefully the thing is branded in such a way that it enhances rather than detracts from the main Purdue brand.
This is a total CEO-style move from Mitch. I don't think that it's either inherently good or inherently bad; it will depend on the execution. Based on his track record, I think I trust Mitch to pull this off.
That last post hit the nail on the head. Purdue did an evaluation of how to implement an online classes through its existing population and determined this was much more feasible and quicker. The deal is structured to be very low risk and we are basically buying the technology
Everyone who posted PRIOR to reading PrintersRowBoilers post need to go read it, or re-read it...and focus on the last line. Pres Daniels got the tech on pennies on the dollar. Well done!!! Continues to impress...
A lot of your big, long time Universities now offer online programs. So it makes sense as from what I read, Purdue had tried to start up something but for what ever reason just couldn't seem to get there quickly enough. So go buy one with infrastructure setup and build from there instead of from the ground up.
And just off the top of my head in state, IU has an online program, Ball State does, Notre Dame does, Indiana State does. So yeah, Purdue kind of needed to be there already, it's never good to be late to the party, but the way they moved in with buying one of the biggest online programs give them instant creditability.
And just off the top of my head in state, IU has an online program, Ball State does, Notre Dame does, Indiana State does. So yeah, Purdue kind of needed to be there already, it's never good to be late to the party, but the way they moved in with buying one of the biggest online programs give them instant creditability.
There is a fairly scathing analysis of the details of the deal in yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://www.chronicle.com/article/There-s-a-Reason-the/239954
http://www.chronicle.com/article/There-s-a-Reason-the/239954
There is a fairly scathing analysis of the details of the deal in yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mollyhensl...-will-acquire-a-massive-for-profit#.avOZKRrA5
Here's a more objective review...especially given the first line of the article, which cannot be argued: "Indiana's most prestigious public university..."
Great article. There is clearly a lot more to this issue than "just acquiring the technology".
The author of this article worked in the Obama and Clinton adminstrations so I'm sure he is completely unbiased and has no issue with Mitch's politics.
I'll add some perspective on that article: I work in online education at a competing university, so I keep an eye on the Chronicle. They're not especially a proponent of online ed, and especially not the for profit providers (granted, many of the for profit providers have given them good reason to feel that way). But their opinion, at least the author of this article anyway, is is not as unbiased an analysis as one might expect. The Chronicle, while a good and respectable publication, is still predominantly an advocate for the in the classroom experience.
I don't think anyone can argue the future with on line coursework. Still, it is all about execution. Years ago (late 1980s) I could see this had a future and for a very few times exchanged some emails David Feeney (while at Temple). The reality is a lot of people employed as teachers could lose jobs if their presentations were not particularly impressive. I'm only concerned that Purdue keep the name tied to an academic high level and that cheating is eliminated as much as possible. Many teachers falsely state they provide individualized instruction, but with 30 students in an hour class that allows 2 minutes per student and so the practicality is not there, but "could" be with online course work. Whether k-12 or post high school, there is a bright future along this line...all dependent on execution...
A somewhat pioneer in this area http://nebula.wsimg.com/9ff028356a5...9B0BE74DB7BB8E8D3&disposition=0&alloworigin=1
I have little insight or understanding of this action, so take my comment at face value.
When I think of online education, my first thoughts are about providers such as Khan Academy and Coursera. Perhaps the future of Kaplan is as a Purdue-branded education site that competes with these. It may be less expensive to purchase Kaplan for $1 (plus whatever debt and operating costs such as salaries are included) than to build such a competing infrastructure from scratch.
CoBo
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