单项选择题

For-Profit Colleges Clean Up Their Acts... Sort Of
The image of the nation’s for-profit colleges has taken a beating in recent months. Senate hearings and the media have been filled with stories of schools engaging in questionable business practices, including accusations that some colleges pushed students to take loans they couldn’t afford and misled applicants about the potential for getting a high-paying job after receiving a degree. And the bad press isn’t over yet. Last week the Florida attorney general’s(检察长) office announced an investigation into whether for-profit higher-education schools—including Kaplan Inc., the University of Phoenix, Everest University, Med Vance Institute, and Argosy University—had made misrepresentations to students.
Faced with mounting criticism, two of the largest for-profit colleges have announced reforms. Starting in September the 470,000-student-strong University of Phoenix stopped paying its admissions officers based on the number of students they sign up, eliminating an incentive some see for those officers to mislead applicants or pressure them to sign paperwork. The school will also put all prospective new students through a three-week, tuition-free "orientation" course designed to help them decide whether they’re ready for the commitments that come with their studies. In the past there have been reports of cash-strapped students talked into signing up when they may not have been ready—many may be behind financially or educationally, but they still end up on the hook for making school payments they can’t really afford. "The orientation program enables incoming students to make an informed decision about attending University of Phoenix and experience the strictness of the college classroom without incurring a financial burden," says University of Phoenix spokesman Manny Rivera. Kaplan, one of the University of Phoenix’s larger competitors, announced a similar free orientation course in September. New Kaplan students must take the course and pass an "academic assessment" in order to enroll in a degree program.
The federal government is also stepping in: on Nov. 1 the Department of Education will announce a set of new rules that for-profit schools must follow, including an industry wide prohibition against incentives to admissions officers for recruiting more students and a revision to policies that have allowed schools to change the way they count credit hours in order to let students borrow more federal cash. Advocates praise these reforms. "It’s inspiring to see the Education Department regulating this industry, whereas for a very long time there was no supervision," says Steve Burd of the New America Foundation’s watchdog blog, Higher Ed Watch. The changes proposed by the schools are "a step in the right direction," adds Ben Miller, of the think tank Education Sector. But it’s unclear whether the rest of the industry will follow the lead of these bigger for-profit schools, and whether the latest reforms will effectively address the industry’s core problem: graduates with high debt and, critics say, an education that doesn’t adequately prepare them for the workplace.
Trade associations that represent the schools are lobbying against further changes the Department of Education is considering, including tighter monitoring of how students develop after graduation. Schools say changes of this sort are unnecessary, but Education Secretary Arne Duncan argues they are needed "to make sure that taxpayer dollars are well spent" (taxpayer-backed student loans are by far the largest revenue source for the industry). "These schools—and their investors—benefit from billions of dollars in subsidies from taxpayers and, in return, taxpayers have a right to know that these programs are providing solid preparation for a job," Duncan said in a July statement.
Reforms like orientation programs end up reducing the number of students who enter a school, and that’s not usually good for business. University of Phoenix and Kaplan have made these changes anyway, but that’s in part because they have a financial motivation to do so. both receive federal loans and grants at a rate that approaches 90 percent of their revenues. If they exceed that 90 percent threshold two years in a row, the government will stop approving loans for their new students. "Essentially the school would have to shut down," explains industry analyst Matt Snowling of FBR Capital Markets. In order to avoid that scene, schools have to reduce the number of high-debt students on their rolls, and orientation courses that force students to consider their ability to pay are one way to do that.
The news that the University of Phoenix would slow its enrollment has understandably worried investors. When the company acknowledged on a call with analysts this month that its new policies would cause student enrollment to decline, its stock price dipped 23 percent in a single day. "University of Phoenix appears to be engaged in a serious effort to reform itself," says Burd. "It is admirably doing this in the face of fierce resistance from Wall Street, making it extremely unlikely that the rest of the industry will follow suit." Miller, the policy analyst, notes that all for-profit schools could require that students take a cooling-off period of a few days before they enroll, which, like University of Phoenix’s and Kaplan’s reforms, would ensure that they think it over before borrowing for school, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Other federally required changes that could happen down the road include so-called gainful-employment rules that would force colleges to monitor how many of their graduates are actually employed and can afford to pay back their loans. If a college is graduating too many students who can’t, it might not be able to get federal loans for new students the following year (loans for existing students would not be affected) . Under these regulations, the system would also limit the amount of debt for students who graduate from for-profit colleges, but it would also limit the number of low-income students who can attend them. Under pressure from for-profit schools, the Department of Education has agreed to delay the "gainful employment" rules at least until next year while it holds more public hearings.
In the meantime, students ought to remain cautious about the commitment they’re making in signing up for a for-profit college. Though Kaplan and University of Phoenix’s orientation programs provide students with some time to reconsider their decision, no industry wide rule is laid down. So students looking to start careers with degrees from for-profit institutions should take their time before signing that promissory note.
What is one of the business practices by for-profit schools reported by media