Phoenix U under pressure for low quality

The NY Times ran a story today (Reg req.) about the problems faced by Phoenix University. They note that under relentless pressure to produce profits, they are busy reducing quality instruction and instructors.

This is an important story for us, in that the administration argued that we needed the Bachelors of Applied Studies in order to compete with this kind of shoddy educational experience. As the article points out, Phoenix is not accredited by the major accreditation organizations and has never even tried. They put profits before education, which suggests to me that copying them means that we would be headed down the wrong path.

As you also remember, the BAS hit so much faculty resistance for low standards that they went back to the drawing board.

This article reminds us why it is so important to resist using the for-profit model or trying to compete with Phoenix on price!