My former employer is back in the news and it's not good. The top headline at The Huffington Post right now: "Kaplan: No class? For Profit College Earns Billions For Washington Post Using Shady Practices". I question the editors' choice to make this the top story given the repeal of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell and the passage of the New START treaty... but, anyway...
Over the past decade the Washington Post's newspaper division went from being profitable to losing millions of dollars. The test-prep division has seen profits decline. Meanwhile, the net income (profit) for Kaplan Higher Ed has skyrocketed. Higher Ed is the network of Kaplan colleges - of which I was part of for five years.
The article highlights a practice of student advisors continuing to enroll students who had quit. The students get a huge bill and say, "But I quit!" Not surprisingly, the company says "No one in this company has ever been asked, advised or permitted to be an impostor in terms of e-mail messages or student accounts." I am sure he is right. Actually, I'm surprised the spokesperson didn't take it one step farther and say, "We have told employees we would fire them if we ever caught them doing anything like that."
As an employee I absolutely believed I could - and would - be fired if I did anything close to what is described in this article. (That's good.) I also believed that the pressures brought on us would lead many to do unethical things. Nobody at the company had more pressure than the student services workers, who this article highlights as the villains.
The population of students at Kaplan is non-traditional. Many have children and/or are working full-time while in college. Sometimes they realize going back to college was a mistake, or at the wrong time or some new problem arose. Imagine being in student services when a student comes in and says, "My partner left me. I moved back in with my parents. I no longer have a car. I have to walk to work. Without his income I have to take on a second job to pay my bills. Right now the last thing I need to worry about is taking classes." Your job in student services is to convince them to stay NO MATTER WHAT. If too many leave you will be facing the unemployment line - where Kaplan will fight allowing you to collect unemployment insurance!
In summary, I am certain neither Kaplan nor the Washington Post would ever allow a worker to sign up a student against his/her will. I am also certain that the pressure to keep students from dropping out would lead otherwise good people to do bad things.
There was an hour long special on CNBC last night called "cost of admission," that I actually found to be interesting, (I must be getting old) that talked about these things.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I thought the documentary glazed over is the "is college worth it financially in today's market?"... I personally think for a vast majority it's not worth the debt, and I'm not sure if the gradual creep of job requirements is a reaction or the catalyst to everyone "needing" college education. I wish they would have had more #'s as to the financial advantage of college. Of course, those #'s are hard to get hard figures on, as people who work harder and have drive are generally going to be going to college, where people who aspire to be a line supervisor at best are not college types.
I know that I got my job with little more than HS education and experience, and the requirements they send out when we hire a new person to work with me indicate that a masters is required.
Apparently it was called the "price of admission"
ReplyDeleteYou raise a great point. One of my closest friends is a Coe grad and has been a manager at McLeodUSA and now YellowBook. He's made the point that he rarely uses any skill he learned in college and he's not happy that his employer places a college education as a requirement for a job. "That job requires somebody who can read, write and communicate. Period. There's no need for a college degree."
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure he's right, and I'd agree more publicly but if everyone realized this I have no chance of getting a teaching job back in the US...
Very interesting article. I agree with all the above comments. I always think back on my choice of going to Kaplan (Hamilton) with mixed feelings. I could of gone to any college and was accepted to many others. The thing I liked about Hamilton was how they worked into my schedule. I was working full time to put myself through college and honestly felt I needed that experience in the workforce to further my career when I got done. Too many times I saw people finishing college with only a degree and no work experience. I choose Hamilton for that reason.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side I would be sitting in class with people who I would be going into the workforce with who also had a degree from Hamilton. I can only hope that I beat those people to the interviews because after talking to them and realizing I had a degree from the same place, I would be screwed.
All that to say this. You control the education you get and like my dad use to say 'don't let school get in the way of your education.' I don't regret going to Hamilton I had a few teachers who made lasting marks on me, Steve included. I went there, put my time in, got a bachelors degree in 3 years and now I have a great job. So this school in the hands of the right person can be just as good as any other school. Just need a little luck that the idiots don't interview before you. :)