I’ve mentioned the University of Phoenix a couple of times in this blog, most recently when I referred to a business deal between Apollo Group, which owns U of P, and NTI, a mass messaging company.
But I want to be clear that I am not a fan of the University of Phoenix. You see, I tend to listen to those stories from people who feel that they’ve been burned. There are just way too many of them to ignore. You can do a Google search to find them yourself, but you might start with www.MyUofPMistake.com since that one is written with a little less venom than most. See what you think.
Anyway, there are loads of former University of Phoenix students who are cheering this week. You see, the court found the Apollo Group guilty of securities fraud for withholding crucial information from investors and ordered it to pay approximately $280-million to the shareholders who had sued.
It’s not the first time that the University of Phoenix has been in trouble. In 2004, the company repeatedly failed to disclose in its Security and Exchange Commission filings and in its conference calls with financial analysts the existence of a US Department of Education review that had blasted its student recruiting practices. That report, which found that the university had violated a federal law that bans colleges from compensating admissions officers on the basis of enrollments, became public only after the university reluctantly agreed to a $9.8 million settlement with the Department in which it denied any wrongdoing.
Now, see, that just doesn’t make me feel too warm and fuzzy about the University of Phoenix.
I don’t have any problem with the idea that a company can go into the education business. Education doesn’t always have to be a non-profit thing. But no organization should get away with deceiving students and shareholders. So, I’m happy to hear that the University of Phoenix is getting its hands slapped in a very big way.
Bottom line: do your due diligence. Don’t pick a school based on a banner ad. If you’re thinking of sinking some serious money into a degree, talk to your friends, your current and possible future employers and see what they think.
Buyer beware.
6 Comments
April 8, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Well, yes and no. The settlement against Apollo Group was brought by a pension fund, not by the general body of investors because of a non-disclose of the 2004 investigation at the time of their investment.
Also, keep in mind that UOP is not the only school to get into how water about recruitment practices. NCAA programs are constantly on the recieving end of disiplinary action due to ethics violations in recruitment and pushing underachieving students through their program in order to make staggering amounts of money from their athletic progams. Big schools are non-profit in name only. How else can you justify what they pay the big coaches, athletic directors, and university presidents?
July 24, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Yes, the University of Phoenix is a financial scam! They charged me $2,656.00 for a class I was never enrolled in. I made repeated telephone calls to their financial aid office which refused to correct the error. Finally, after filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau UOP admitted that they had “mistakenly” failed to process my withdrawal request, unfortunately not before they had sent sent a bill to collections, which is now showing on my credit report. When I asked them to have it removed from my credit report they never responded, now five month later it is still showing on my credit report, and to make matters worse they recently resubmitted the debt again, but this time to a different collection agency Cost Professional Inc., out of Anaheim, CA. The scam is if a student withdraws from UOP, UOP will attempt to destroy their good financial standing or credit so that they will not be able to enroll in a different University.
July 28, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Mike, I agree with you. Southern Methodist University was on its way to becoming the Harvard of the South. How did it get the “death penalty”? Look it up! I spent most of my years at Baylor University, but finished up a Masters degree at Univ. of Phoenix. Negatives: aggressive recruiting and poor communication among the departments (i.e. fin aid, academic, etc) Because of this, U of Phoenix is always the one people love to hate.
Positives: Highly educated professors who teach the subjects where they have actual formal educational plus career experience. It’s so funny, though, how they have impacted the great universities of the world. It’s funny how many have a new curriculum and instructional delivery system just like the University of Phoenix!
November 22, 2008 at 12:38 am
As a former employee of one of these “for profit schools” stay away at all costs!
December 5, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I am trying to find if there were any scams involving university of Phoenix in 1998-2001. I spent over $14000 on “classes” paid for by cc online got a degree in 2001 that says Phoenix university but I am applying for a job and the company says that U of P has no record of me. I provided the same info to my last employer and thought they had done a check as well. Does anyone know of anything like this? Please help!!!!!!
January 6, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I don’t see what the big deal is…..it’s not the first time a college has been into trouble. Even big named schools have been in some serious if not more serious trouble (If needed I can or you can do the research and pull up the supporting information that you and I know exists). The big question to ask is “Are they paying for their mistakes?” The answer is “Yes they are.” I have found good and bad things from many schools, and your education is what you put into it, not a banner as you have stated or anything else for that matter. Most schools have good teachers and bad teachers, but what you will find are most schools that teach the same types of curriculum use the same books therefore applying yourself is a key point to a good education. I have worked with folks from all over the world and many have a college education from some of the most prestigious schools, unfortunately; many have bad work ethics, have bad team working skills, and don’t remember a darn thing that they learned in college.
SO…………what I am saying is if a school has a program that you want and they use the same materials and teaching methods of your liking, and the location works for you; then go for it, and apply yourself to get the best education you can.
Just some thoughts….