University of Phoenix

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the .(December 2007) Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

University of Phoenix (UOP) is a for-profit educational institution specializing in adult education, with campuses located throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. UOP was founded in 1976 by Dr. John Sperling and is now owned by Apollo Group, Inc.. The University of Phoenix is the United States' largest for-profit school with both internet and campus-based programs.

History

In the early 1970s, at San Jose State University in California, John Sperling and several associates conducted field-based research in adult education. The focus of the research was to explore teaching/learning systems for the delivery of educational programs and services to working adult students who wished to complete or further their education in ways that complemented both their experience and current professional responsibilities. At that time colleges and universities were organized primarily around serving the needs of the 18-22 year old undergraduate student given that the large majority of those enrolled were residential students of traditional college age, just out of high school. According to Sperling, working adult students were often "invisible" on traditional campuses and treated as second-class citizens.^[1] University of Phoenix is the United States' largest private university, with 250,000 students, most of them working adults. Its parent company had $2.3 billion in revenue last year, ranking it among Arizona's largest companies.^[2]

University of Phoenix Stadium

The 73,000 seat University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona is a multipurpose retractable dome best known as the home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals and the site of the NCAA's Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. It is not a University facility but a municipal sports arena whose naming rights were bought by UOP for advertising purposes. The school agreed to pay $154.5 million for the 20-year arrangement shortly after the Stadium's construction in 2006.^[2] The University of Phoenix's physical campuses serve only as classroom spaces and administrative offices. UOP does not organize any extracurricular student activities such as student publications, clubs, or intramural or intercollegiate sports.

Modalities

Campus-based Learning: Students attend one class per week, usually in the evening for most degree programs; however, some campus locations offer daytime or weekend classes. Bachelor degree courses are five weeks long and master degree courses are six weeks long. Courses are worth three credits and are taken one at a time. Campus students also work closely together in small learning team group assignments. ^[3] Online Learning: Course work is completed entirely through electronic forums. Depending on a student's degree program level (Associate, Bachelor, Master, or Doctorate), class participation requirements range from three to five days per seven-day week; students can participate at any time on any three to five days. Facilitators will ask "discussion questions" in the classroom forums. Each student is required to respond to the Discussion Questions and can choose to respond to other students' responses. Aside from participation, students have one to two weekly assignments to complete and upload to their instructors' forum. All course materials are provided online in viewable and downloadable format.^[3]

Accreditation

UOP is regionally accredited by the The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.^[4] In British Columbia, the University of Phoenix was accredited by the Private Post-Secondary Education Commission (PPSEC) in 2002. That agency is now called the Private Career Training Institutions Agency (PCTIA). University of Phoenix's business degree programs are accredited by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs ACBSP.^[5]. The Bachelor of Science in Nursing and the Master of Science in Nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). The Master of Counseling program in Community Counseling (in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona) and the Master of Counseling program in Mental Health Counseling (in Utah) are accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).^[6] The education degree programs are NOT accredited by NCATE or any other body.

Criticism

The University of Phoenix has vocal critics among its alumni, students, and employees. Some have created critical web sites^[7] such as UoPexperience.com. The main points of criticism include:

• The coursework is perceived by some as trivial, non-challenging, and non-educational^[7][8].
• That UoP's tuition cost is greater than most public schools and is seen by some as disproportionate to the educational value it gives to its students, as compared with community colleges and other public schools.^[9]
• That a degree from UoP is seen by employers as inferior, and that students graduate only to find that their degree doesn't get them the jobs they hoped it would^[8]. According to the Online University Consortium, a 2003 study of HR professionals indicated that "the majority of the HR professionals surveyed would select a job candidate with an online degree from a traditional school such as USC or University of Michigan over a job candidate with a degree from an organization such as the University of Phoenix"^[10].
• The UoP's perceived balance between value to students and profits to shareholders is a major element of criticism. Critics cite that the recent success UoP has seen on Wall Street has come directly at the expense of a declining quality of education to students^[9][11]. They note that they believe people don't have a problem with a university making a profit as long as it is delivering a good value to its customers.
• That UoP accepts enrollment from anyone, such as first-time college students whom UoP caters to, even if UoP is not suitable for them.^[9][11] This is seen as favoring profits over education.
• That UoP doesn't have qualified professors or teachers, but rather, facilitators, which encourage students to teach each other.^[7][11] Critics contend this issue is exacerbated by UoP's willingness to enroll anybody regardless of background, pointing out that being taught by "just anybody" is no replacement for traditional classes with a professor. On the other hand, others point out that the University of Phoenix only hires "facilitators" who have masters or doctoral degrees. Even if these "facilitators" do not have the title of professor, they have the advanced education and experience needed to teach their courses.

Controversies

Faculty

Some members of the academic community and employers consider UOP's faculty to be too "come-and-go" and nomadic.^[7][12] Approximately 95% of UOP faculty are part-time compared with an average of 47% across all universities. The University of Phoenix requires that most faculty be actively working in the fields that they teach.^[7]

MBA program's lack of AACSB accreditation

In November 2006, Intel Corporation decided to exclude over 100 colleges who lacked the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation from its tuition reimbursement program, including University of Phoenix, saying it lacked "top-notch accreditation."^[13][7][14] Additionally, there have been published reports that Procter and Gamble and other companies^[15] will not hire graduates of non-AACSB-accredited MBA programs. Intel acknowledges that UOP is regionally accredited but an Intel manager is quoted as drawing a distinction of "highly accredited" and clearly excluding the University of Phoenix from it.^[12][7] John J. Fernandes, the AACSB's president, said the University of Phoenix has never applied for membership. He feels that their chances of acceptance would be low because they have a "lot of come-and-go faculty".^[7][12][8]

Graduation and retention

When calculated by the federal standard used by the Department of Education, UOP's overall graduation rate is 16%, which when compared to the national average of 55% is among the nation's lowest.^[7] The federal standard measures graduation rates as "the percentage of first-time undergraduates who obtain a degree within six years"^[7]. The number is significantly lower at its Southern California campus (6%) and its online programs (4%).^[7] University of Phoenix published a response^{[16][dead link]} acknowledging the 16% graduation rate but took exception to the Federal standard used to calculate the rate, noting that the rate is based upon criteria which includes only 7% of UoP's student population. The institution publishes its own nonstandard graduation rate of 59% to account for its large population of non-traditional students.^[7]

Federal investigations and lawsuits

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settled a second sexual harassment claim filed against the university by a former employee for $225,000 in August 2007.^[17] In September 2004, the university paid a settlement of $9.8 million to the United States Department of Education for alleged violations of the Higher Education Act provisions which prohibit distributing financial incentives to admission representatives.^{[18][19][20][21][22]} A federal whistle-blower/false claims lawsuit accusing the university of fraudulently obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid was filed in 2003 and is currently pending.^{[9][7][23][24]} The university receives more federal student financial aid than any other university in the United States, receiving $1.8 billion in federal student aid in 2004-5.^[7] The lawsuit was dismissed by the federal district court and then reinstated by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court declined to hear University of Phoenix's appeal of that decision.^[25][26] The federal district court in Sacramento refused the university's motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that an "alternate remedy" had already been achieved by the aforementioned $9.8 million settlement. That court set the case for trial in September 2009.^[27] The university paid $3.5 million in back wages owed to 1,700 workers related to overtime pay and exemption status given to its recruitment advisers, under a settlement reached in July, 2004 with the United States Department of Labor.^[28][29] The university is being sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for alleged religious discrimination favoring Mormon enrollment counselors.^[30] The university settled allegations by the United States Department of Education for $6 million in March 2000 pursuant to a ruling by government auditors that the university's teaching schedule fell short of the minimum time required to qualify for financial aid because it wrongfully included study group meetings among students as instructional hours. The auditors also ruled that the university erred in including cost-of-living expenses for some students when determining financial need.^[31][7][9] The aforementioned $6 million settlement with the United States Department of Education came less than a year after that agency ordered the university to pay $650,000 for failing to promptly refund loans and grants for students who withdrew.^[9]

References