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    Purdue University held its first classes on its Indiana campus in 1874 and was ranked as the sixtieth best undergraduate university and twentieth best public university in US News and World Report’s most recent list. The University particularly excels in science and engineering, supplying a substantial number of NASA’s past astronauts, including Neil Armstrong. Kaplan University began offering online courses in 2003 as part of The Washington Post Company’s growing education division. Kaplan was started as a test prep company in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan. When The Washington Post was making more money than it knew what to do with, it purchased Kaplan in 1984 and grew it to an education empire that included brick and mortar campuses, an online university, international schools, and test preparation materials. By 2010, Kaplan was doing $2.9 billion in revenue, but then the landscape dramatically changed for for-profit education companies as they became accused of aggressive sales techniques and poor educational quality. Donald Graham, the Post Company’s CEO, defended for-profit institutions in his 2010 letter to shareholders, by arguing that its student population was more likely to face challenges because Kaplan was providing access to at-risk student populations, but that adjusting for these risk factors, for-profit schools were often better than their non-profit counterparts. Whether or not he was right, it became clear as time passed that he had lost the war. After the Graham sold the namesake newspaper to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the name of the company owning Kaplan changed to The Graham Holdings Company. The deal allows Purdue to create a separate, online university with little investment in technology and infrastructure. The University will pay Graham Holdings $1 initially, but up to 12.5% of the university’s revenues. The deal also involves 32,000 students compared to the 40,000 currently enrolled at Purdue. After the deal closes, only The University of Maryland would have more online students among publi
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
      buyUSAfor-profitIndiana_public-privatepublic-private_partnershipApr2017English
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      A private Catholic university in Kansas is planning to offer a support group for its LGBTQ students, using a model implemented at Notre Dame. WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Newman University, a private Catholic school in Wichita, plans to offer a group next year to support its LGBTQ students while continuing to emphasize Catholic teaching that condones sex only in marriage between a man and a woman. In response to growing interest among students to recognize the school's diversity, the university formed a committee to plan the LGBTQ group. The committee met over the summer and fall of 2016 and used a model used at Notre Dame, The Wichita Eagle reported (http://bit.ly/2oR44Ux ). The group's formation was spurred in part by a speech by Ruben Lerma at a public forum, where he discussed being gay on the Newman campus. He said he attended Newman because it offered him a full scholarship, even though he was concerned about being "that gay student." Lerma recounted overhearing Newman students saying gay people should go to hell and legalizing gay marriage would make gays want to marry animals. "I'm not the only gay person here, I'm not going to be the only gay person here, there will be more," Lerma remembers saying. "If for their sake, if not mine, you should make it more amiable, make the environment better." Lerma's speech came as interest in recognizing diversity was growing. The university has restarted the Black Student Union, added a club to support Asian students and hired a diversity coordinator last year. Newman's mission has always included concern for the dignity of all students, said spokesman Clark Shafer, but the events in 2016 raised awareness of the need to make LGBTQ students feel more welcome. Before making the "Pastoral Plan" public, Newman contacted important alumnus and donor, who approved how the group upheld the school's Catholic values, Shafer said. "The University exhorts all to hear and live the Church's teaching that 'the deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of mar
      6 years ago by @prophe
       
        Apr2017USAEnglishKansas
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        CHENNAI: After a prolonged delay caused by the state government and the search committees appointed by it, now it is the turn of the Tamil Nadu governor to sit on the files pertaining to appointment of vice chancellors to three premier universities. University of Madras, Anna University and Madurai Kamaraj University . Files relating to Madras and Anna varsities have been pending in Raj Bhavan for close to a month and that of Kamaraj varsity for a week. Incidentally , nine out of 13 varsities in the state do not have full time registrars and eight of them do not have controllers of examinations. "The ball is in the governor's court," a government official said. The posts of VCs have been lying vacant in the three varsities for more than a year.While the appointments of varsity heads were mired in controversies relating to payment of bribes in the past few years, the Raj Bhavan's inaction is not helping the varsities either. Incidentally , governor C Vidyasagar Rao, who is also chancellor of all state varsities, appointed SFelix as vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Fisheries University 10 days ago. In the absence of VCs, the institutions are run by convener committees led by the higher education secretary . It is a fivemember panel in the Universi ty of Madras since April 21. Because of the absence of a VC, the University of Madras put off annual convocations last year, affecting higher studies of students. There was an attempt in the university to hold convocation with degrees signed by the convener committee chairman, but it was dropped following objections.The institution, insiders say , faces its worst financial crisis and is plagued by irregularities as pointed out by the government's own local audit for the year 2015-16. Much of the decision-making in the varsities involves research projects and degrees for which a board of research studies led by a VC is the backbone."Now, all research related decisions are either pending or taken on ad hoc basis," Prof G Ravindran, general secretary of Madras University Teache
        6 years ago by @prophe
         
          IndiachennaiEnglishApr2017appointmentUniversity_Grants_Commission
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          How do you turn a for-profit college into a not-for-profit? Partner with a public university—and pay $50 million for the privilege. That’s basically what happened on Thursday, in a financial deal between the for-profit Kaplan higher-education chain and Purdue University, the flagship Indiana college run by Mitch Daniels, the state’s former governor. The arrangement may help Kaplan parent Graham Holdings Inc. shed the for-profit education sector’s tarnished reputation. Purdue—paying Graham only a symbolic $1—immediately enters the ranks of public universities expanding their reach with online degrees targeting older Americans—many of them minorities—who are unable to attend traditional schools. “We thought it would be a bad idea for us to build this on our own,” said Daniels, Purdue’s president. “We’ve seen a lot of schools throw a lot of money at online education without much result.” Under the contract, Graham will transfer Kaplan University’s online programs, as well as its 15 campuses and learning centers—with 32,000 students—to the Purdue-related non-for-profit. Kaplan will then operate them and guarantee that Purdue’s venture, for five years, receive at least $10 million a year from its revenues after expenses. After that payment, Kaplan is entitled to reimbursement for its own cost of providing services, plus a fee equal to 12.5 percent of the Purdue affiliate’s revenues. Kaplan Higher Education reported $617 in revenue last year and almost $67 million in operating income. Kaplan was once the crown jewel of Washington Post Co., as its fast-growing colleges helped support its financially struggling newspaper. In 2013, the company sold the Post to Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and then changed the name of the company to Graham Holdings, after the Washington family that had long controlled the paper. Donald Graham, then the Post Co. chief executive officer, is still the Graham Holdings chairman. For-profit colleges including Kaplan have seen their fortunes dim amid scrutiny from Congress and state
          6 years ago by @prophe
           
            Kaplanfor-profitpublic-privatepublic-private_partnershipApr2017EnglishUSA
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            A private North Carolina college is calling on faculty and staff to sign and live in accordance with a document that opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. One faculty member says she and eight of her colleagues have refused to sign it and are leaving. MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) — A private North Carolina Christian college is insisting that its faculty and staff sign a document that opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. One faculty member says she and eight of her colleagues have refused to sign it and are leaving the school. News media outlets report that part of Montreat College's "Community Life Covenant" expects those who work there to affirm "the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman" and the "worth of every human being from conception to death." Covenant opponents blame the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which contributed $100,000 to the college's scholarship fund last month. The fund is led by Franklin Graham, a Montreat College alumnus and an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage and abortion. The association has denied any role in the covenant, however. School spokesman Adam Caress told The Charlotte Observer in an email that only two faculty members — one of its 39 full-time faculty and one of its 142 adjunct faculty — have cited the school's "core documents," including the covenant, as the reason they will not return to the school after this semester. Caress said Montreat College spent the past 2 1/2 years "reviewing and revising" those core documents in a "transparent and deliberative process" that included 13 "listening sessions," during which the school heard and responded to the concerns of faculty, staff, and alumni. Corrie Greene, an English teacher at the school who also directs its writing center, said the document doesn't just pertain to what faculty do and say in the classroom and on campus. She is among the nine faculty members who said they won't be returning. "It says we must affirm and uphold the college's specific spiritual stances in our full 24 hour/seven-day-a
            6 years ago by @prophe
             
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