THERE used to be three near-certainties about higher education. It was supplied on a national basis, mostly to local students. It was government-regulated. And competition and profit were almost unknown concepts. As most education was publicly funded, the state had a big say in what was taught, to how many and for how long. Insofar as it existed at all, competition was a gentlemanly business; few educators thought much about customers, fewer about profit.
Laureate Education Inc, a for-profit higher education provider that boasts former U.S. President Bill Clinton as honorary chancellor, is planning to launch an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.
A specter of corruption is haunting the global campaign toward higher education internationalization. An overseas degree is increasingly valuable, so it is not surprising that commercial ventures have found opportunities on the internationalization landscape. New private actors have entered the sector, with the sole goal of making money. Some of them are less than honorable. Some universities look at internationalization as a contribution to the bottom line in an era of financial cutbacks. The rapidly expanding private higher education sector globally is largely for-profit. In a few cases, such as Australia and increasingly Britain, national policies concerning higher education internationalization tilt toward earning income for the system.
Although private non-profit colleges and universities have a long and distinguished history throughout the world, what has come to be known as ‘for-profit higher education’ is a relative newcomer.
However, the amount of legal threats, lawsuits, hacking attempts, domain hijacking attempts, and so forth on the part of for-profit institutions around the world (especially from the US and Canada) is something that we deal with every single day.
One more sign that colleges and companies see the financial possibilities of the international-student market: A British company that helps to bring students from China and other countries to campuses in the United States and other English-speaking nations has announced an investment of more than $100-million from a private-equity firm.
The International Finance Corporation on Wednesday announced a $150 million equity investment in Laureate Education, Inc., a Baltimore-based, privately held, for-profit education company that operates 65 career-oriented colleges in 29 countries.
Who was it who first admitted that they liked to go to bed at night with a Trollope? Well, like John Major before me, I'm not ashamed; I, too, often take a Trollope to bed with me. Like Walter Scott's, Anthony Trollope's novels read themselves, and make entertaining if sometimes caustic reading before sleep (truthfully, rereading in my case, as I invariably return to my favourites).
In an unusual partnership, Thunderbird School of Global Management today announced it is forming a partnership with a for-profit educational provider, Laureate Education, to offer educational programs around the world.
The company, which owns the University of Phoenix, and the Carlyle Group plan to invest up to $1-billion in education institutions and services abroad.
The group of Laureate Education Inc. managers and outside investors who are seeking to buy out the company and take it private have upped their $3.8-billion offer by $1.50 per share.
Lest anyone doubt that Asia holds promise for American higher-education companies, the chief executive of Laureate Education, who just engineered a $3.8-billion private-equity buyout of the company...
Laureate Education is big. Like 800,000 students attending 78 institutions in 30 countries big. Yet the privately held for-profit university system has largely remained out of the public eye.
Jobs website SEEK is selling its stake in a private colleges firm to a multinational higher education group with ties to former US president Bill Clinton.