"I have observed private and proprietary colleges, like the University of Phoenix, and the market they serve. And I found it intriguing the way in which they are trying to deliver the product, with more accountability, for a price"
About this Quote
Roy Romer points to a shift in higher education where private, proprietary institutions present schooling as a product aimed at a clearly defined market. Schools like the University of Phoenix targeted working adults, military personnel, and first-generation students who needed flexible schedules, online access, and streamlined pathways to credentials. By calling it a product, he underscores how these colleges design offerings around customer demand, speed, and convenience, rather than around the traditional rhythms and mission of residential universities.
The phrase more accountability captures a promise that resonated during the 1990s and 2000s as policymakers demanded measurable outcomes. For-profit institutions collected data on course completion, job placement, and student satisfaction, and they iterated quickly on curricula and delivery. They imposed managerial discipline that resembled corporate operations: standardized courses, aggressive student support, and performance metrics for faculty. That approach seemed to address long-standing critiques of traditional academia as insulated and slow to change.
Yet Romer adds for a price, a concise nod to the trade-offs. The price is literal, since for-profits often charged more than community colleges while relying heavily on federal aid, leaving students with significant debt. It is also philosophical: treating education as a product can narrow its purpose to job training and customer satisfaction, sidelining the broader civic, intellectual, and communal goals universities have historically pursued. Later controversies over marketing practices, completion rates, and gainful employment rules revealed that market feedback can punish failure, but only after harm to students.
Romer, a public education leader, sounds curious rather than doctrinaire. He recognizes the innovation in serving underserved learners with accountability and speed, while signaling the costs and risks of importing a market logic into a public mission. The observation invites a harder question: how to combine the flexibility and measurable results of proprietary models with equitable access, quality, and a vision of education that is more than a product.
The phrase more accountability captures a promise that resonated during the 1990s and 2000s as policymakers demanded measurable outcomes. For-profit institutions collected data on course completion, job placement, and student satisfaction, and they iterated quickly on curricula and delivery. They imposed managerial discipline that resembled corporate operations: standardized courses, aggressive student support, and performance metrics for faculty. That approach seemed to address long-standing critiques of traditional academia as insulated and slow to change.
Yet Romer adds for a price, a concise nod to the trade-offs. The price is literal, since for-profits often charged more than community colleges while relying heavily on federal aid, leaving students with significant debt. It is also philosophical: treating education as a product can narrow its purpose to job training and customer satisfaction, sidelining the broader civic, intellectual, and communal goals universities have historically pursued. Later controversies over marketing practices, completion rates, and gainful employment rules revealed that market feedback can punish failure, but only after harm to students.
Romer, a public education leader, sounds curious rather than doctrinaire. He recognizes the innovation in serving underserved learners with accountability and speed, while signaling the costs and risks of importing a market logic into a public mission. The observation invites a harder question: how to combine the flexibility and measurable results of proprietary models with equitable access, quality, and a vision of education that is more than a product.
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| Topic | Learning |
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