Low Graduation Rates at For-Profit Colleges: Cause for Concern?
An average of just 22 percent of students at for-profit colleges graduated in 2008 and a new report from the Washington, DC—based non-profit research and advocacy group known as the Education Trust is claiming that such colleges offer students little more than immense debt.
In comparison to for-profit colleges’ 22 percent graduation rates, Bachelor’s degree graduation rates at public colleges and universities averaged 55 percent while graduation rates at private non-profit colleges and universities averages 65 percent during the same year.
Enrollment Increasing Drastically at For-Profit Colleges
Inside Higher Ed explains that even though students drop out of public and private not-for-profit colleges, too, the combination of low graduation rates and high prices is seen as dangerous by the consumer-oriented student advocates such as the Education Trust.
The University of Phoenix was one for-profit college specifically mentioned by name in the group’s report. The school issued a statement in response: “It is unreasonable to expect nontraditional college students to complete their studies within an arbitrary, predetermined timeframe, especially when we know those students take longer to finish their degrees because they have families and professional obligations.”
Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, says that the group is so active in the debate over for-profit colleges because “aside from what the numbers tell you, the price of failure is so much higher.”
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