University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix,  is a for-profit institution of higher learning. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Group Inc. which is publicly traded , an S&P 500 corporation based in Phoenix, Arizona.

With a student body in North America second only to the State University of New York, it has a current enrollment of 420,700 undergraduate students and 78,000 graduate students, or 224,880 full-time equivalent students.

The university has more than 200 campuses worldwide and confers degrees in over 100 degree programs at the associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels.

University of Phoenix has an open enrollment admission policy other than requiring a high-school diploma, GED, or its equivalent. The school also provides associate or bachelor's degree applicants opportunity for advanced placement through its prior learning assessment, which, aside from previous coursework, college credit can come from experiential learning essays, corporate training, and certificates or licenses.

Campuses and online services

The reception desk at Phoenix's Hawaii Campus, displaying a Service of Process placard

The university has campuses and learning centers in 40 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Chile, and the Netherlands.While the school specializes in online programs, the campuses offer additional programs and services. Online students are also able to utilize tutoring and social centers, which can also be used for social and student meetings. The first center opened in 2007 in Plano, Texas. Students have access to class-specific online resources, which include an electronic library, textbooks, and other ancillary material required for a course. The university says that the electronic textbooks include search features and hyperlinks to glossary terms that make the books easier to use for research.

Through its online portal, eCampus, University of Phoenix students also have access to software required for coursework. Available, for example, are virtual companies created by the university to provide students with assignments, which Adam Honea, UOPX's dean and provost, claims are more realistic than those available with case studies.

Academics

The university offers degree programs through nine colleges. In addition to its traditional education programs, the school offers continuing education courses for teachers and practitioners, professional development courses for companies, and specialized courses of study for military personnel.

Students spend 20 to 24 hours with an instructor during each course, compared with about 40 hours at a traditional university. The university also requires students to collaborate by working on learning team projects, wherein the class will be divided into learning teams of four to five students. Each learning team is assigned a team forum where team members will discuss the project and submit their agreed upon portions of the learning team assignment for compilation by the nominated learning team leader. The concept of learning teams is somewhat uncommon in traditional academia; however, the University of Phoenix believes that collaborating on projects and having individuals rely on each other reflects the real working conditions of the corporate world.

Some academics and former students feel the abbreviated courses and the use of learning teams result in an inferior education. The University of Phoenix has been criticized for lack of academic rigor. Henry M. Levin, a professor of higher education at Teachers College at Columbia University, called its business degree an "MBA Lite," saying "I’ve looked at its course materials. It’s a very low level of instruction. One instructor at the university also explained that he could only cover a fraction of the syllabus because he said that the university required him to cram too much information into too few sessions. It is argued that for-profit institutions in general represent low academic quality. Critics charge that students of such schools often find their degrees to be worthless when they do not help the students get jobs.

Students

The average age of a University of Phoenix student is between 33 (undergraduate) and 36 (graduate), and most students have work-related commitments.[59] The University states that nearly two-thirds of its students are women and that a plurality of students attending the school study business (undergraduate students representing 29.9% and graduate students 12.9%), followed closely by those enrolled in Axia College for Associate's degrees (28.1%).

The student population is approximately 25% African-American and almost 13% Latino. The university graduates the largest number of underrepresented students with Master's degrees in business, health care, and education than any other U.S. school. The University of Phoenix was also named one of the nation's top 20 institutions of higher education favorable to military personnel, according to the December 2008 issue of Military Advanced Education. Nearly 29,000 active-duty military, their spouses, and veterans were enrolled in University of Phoenix degree programs at that time with more than 7,200 military members or veterans graduated from the university during that year.

When calculated by the federal standard used by the Department of Education, UOPX's overall graduation rate is 16%, which, when compared to the national average of 55%, is among the nation's lowest. The federal standard measures graduation rates as the percentage of first-time undergraduates who obtain a degree within six years. The number is significantly lower at its Southern California campus (6%) and its online programs (4%). This measurement does not take into consideration the typical University of Phoenix student who comes to the University as a dropout from another institution, so is not a first-time college student. University of Phoenix acknowledges the 16% graduation rate but takes exception to the Federal standard used to calculate the rate, noting that the rate is based upon criteria that apply to only 7% of UOPX's student population. The institution publishes its own nonstandard graduation rate of 59% to account for its large population of non-traditional students.

Faculty

The university's faculty consists of approximately 1,500 core faculty and 20,000 associate (part-time or adjunct) faculty members who all hold master's or doctorate degrees. UOPX's reliance on part-time faculty—95 percent of Phoenix instructors teach part time, compared to an average of 47 percent nationwide—has been criticized by regulators and academic critics. UOPX's instructors describe themselves as delivering course material, since most of the classes are centrally crafted and standardized across teachers in order to ensure consistency and reduce costs for the school. Additionally, faculty members do not get tenure. According to a University of Phoenix officer, pre-screened instructional candidates participate in a training program in the discipline in which they teach, which he states has the effect of weeding out 40%–50% of the less committed or capable applicants.

African-Americans make up more than 15% of the university's 22,000 faculty members, and about 6% are Latino.

Alumni

Main article: List of University of Phoenix alumni

As of March 2010, 538,000 people have graduated from the University of Phoenix. Its alumni include U.S. Navy Admiral Kirkland H. Donald,[69] current White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters '94, four-time NBA Championship-winner Shaquille O’Neal '05, and three-time WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie.

History

1970–1999

The University of Phoenix was founded by John Sperling, who felt that "working adult students were often invisible on traditional campuses and treated as second-class citizens. Started in 1976 the Phoenix metropolitan area, the first class consisted of eight students. In 1980, the school expanded to San Jose, California, and in 1989, the university launched its online program.

2000–present

In 2000, the government fined UOP $6 million for failing to include study-group meetings as instructional hours. In 2002, the Department of Education relaxed requirements covering instructional hours.

A 2003 federal whistle-blower/false-claims lawsuit filed by two former UOPX admission counselors alleged that the university improperly obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid by paying its admission counselors solely based on the number of students they enrolled, a violation of the Higher Education Act. Six years later, Apollo, UOPX's parent company, agreed to settle the dispute by paying the United States $67.5 million, plus $11 in attorneys' fees, without acknowledging any wrongdoing.

In 2004, as a result of the filing of the false-claims lawsuit, the Department of Education performed a program review and alleged that UOPX had violated Higher Education Act provisions that prohibit distributing financial incentives to admission representatives, had pressured its recruiters to enroll students, and had concealed the practices from the Department. UOPX disputed the findings but paid a record $9.8 million fine as part of a settlement where it admitted no wrongdoing and was not required to return any financial aid funds. UOPX's President states that though recruiters are paid a commission based on the number of students enrolled, their compensation is not based solely on that criteria, which makes the practice legal. Also that year, the university paid $3.5 million to settle alleged violation of overtime compensation provision with the Department of Labor.

In May 2008, the university announced the formation of the University of Phoenix National Research Center, designed to study which teaching methods work best for nontraditional students. That year, the school was also the top recipient of student financial aid funds, receiving nearly $2.48 billion.

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education provided a preliminary report to the university that cited untimely return of unearned Title IV funds for more than 10 percent of sampled students. The report also expressed a concern that some students enroll and begin attending classes before completely understanding the implications of enrollment, including their eligibility for student financial aid. As a result, in January 2010, parent company Apollo Group Inc. was required to post a letter of credit for $125 million by January 30 of the same year. Later that year, UOPX agreed to pay $1.89 million to settle allegations by the EEOC of religious discrimination favoring Mormon enrollment counselors. University of Phoenix settled a false claims suit for $78.5 million in 2009. In settling these matters, University of Phoenix did not admit any liability or wrongdoing.

In 2010, UOPX came under government scrutiny after its Phoenix and Philadelphia campuses were found to have been engaging in deceptive enrollment practices and fraudulent solicitation of FAFSA funds.