Financial Crisis is a Party for For-Profits

Posted on December 10, 2008
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Jessica Gross

Not everyone’s rotting in the recession’s wake. For-profit universities, in fact, are benefiting from it. Outrageous!

But true — their enrollments and revenues are skyrocketing.

For-profit colleges have seen enrollment grow by an average of about 17 percent during the past nine economic downturns — when Gross Domestic Product declined and unemployment rose — compared with an average of 8 percent growth during positive economic conditions, according to an analysis provided by Stifel Nicolaus, a brokerage and investment banking firm.

The current economic downturn appears to be having a similarly positive effect on for-profit institutions’ enrollments. Between July and September of 2008, nine publicly traded for-profit colleges saw average enrollment growth of 14.8 percent, about 2 percentage points higher than the last four quarters, Stifel Nicolaus found.

Why? Because they’re cheaper than non-profit schools. And fewer students are dropping out because there are no jobs.

(Source: Inside Higher Ed)

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2 Responses to “Financial Crisis is a Party for For-Profits”

  1. College Candy » Candy Dish: Jennifer Aniston Still Hot on GQ on December 11th, 2008 11:00 am

    […] For-profit universities are loving the recession. […]

  2. Stimulus Stimulates For-Profit Colleges : theprereq.com on March 13th, 2009 12:41 pm

    […] yes, they are. Since for-profit schools are much cheaper than non-profit universities, undergrads have been […]

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