The only for-profit institution in Britain authorized to offer higher-education degrees is in talks with several public universities about managing the business side of their operations, according to the Guardian. The company, BPP, “has launched an aggressive expansion plan to jointly run at least 10 of its publicly funded counterparts,” the paper reports.
The head of Britain's first for-profit university college was paid £738,000 ($1,177,000) in one year, while the co-chief executive officer of the firm’s U.S. owner has a long-term pay deal valued at £15.8 million ($25.2 million).
But today they are facing two imminent threats to their near-monopoly of higher education. The first is the expansion of educational providers that exist solely on private support. The second comes from the small but growing efforts of for-profit universities, heavily influenced by commercial education ventures in the United States.
The government is being urged to prevent universities being bought by private equity firms after the College of Law, a charity that provides teaches law courses in London and six other cities across England, was sold to a private equity firm for £200m.
This (unnamed) college demonstrates the 'dark side' of the private sector in higher education. Things can go wrong, and when they do this can be very bad - particularly for the students. This is not to say that the private sector in higher education is all like this. It can be done well, and a private alternative to publicly funded universities and colleges adds a great deal to the sector. As in the US and many other countries, private colleges can enrich the student and academic experience for all, giving diversity and real alternatives.
The government has adopted a policy of not discriminating between public, for-profit and voluntary providers of many public services. Is this the right way to go for higher education?
FoI reveals moves and countermoves in struggle for state cash and influence. For-profit providers have pressed the government to give them greater access to publicly funded student loans and open up teaching grant in high-cost subjects.
Glion Institute of Higher Education, one of the world’s top three institutions of higher education for an international career in hospitality management, announced today that it is opening its first branch campus in London. The new campus expands the reach of Glion’s Swiss hospitality education programmes to students and industry leaders in the U.K. Glion is a member of Laureate International Universities, a global network of more than 60 accredited campus-based and online institutions of higher education serving more than 740,000 students in 29 countries.
Regent's College is to take over the American InterContinental University London in what is thought to be the first UK acquisition of a for-profit by a not-for-profit higher education provider.
The leading lights of the for-profit higher education sector might be unfairly stereotyped as hard-nosed types. Meanwhile, people from Yorkshire have been unfairly stereotyped as keeping a particularly tight rein on their finances.
For example, the not-for-profit Regent’s College has become Regent’s University and the College of Law has become the University of Law, the UK’s first for-profit university.
The government is set to decide whether to make BPP a university, creating the UK’s second for-profit institution with the title, just as its US parent company faces “adverse impact” from a sanction against one of its other institutions.
Senior academics in the UCU lecturers' union have said they fear expansion of for-profit universities could damage the reputation of higher education in the UK
In a bold and commendable move, the government last week granted university status to BPP University, making it the second for-profit private higher education institution in the UK.