With the cost of college rising every year, higher education alternatives such as for-profit providers have grown exponentially in recent years, offering a low-cost alternative to the traditional college model. These approaches, however, face numerous unique higher education challenges, such as persistent questions about their accreditation, the ability to transport a corporate model into this usually nonprofit sector, and the academic performance of their students. Even with these questions, for-profits still play a key role in higher education today and might offer important lessons on how to contain costs and improve productivity for their nonprofit peers.

Panelists at this event will closely examine the reality of for-profit higher education and look at future opportunities in this realm. During the first panel, Jane McAuliffe, vice president of academic affairs at Bridgepoint Education; Mark Pelesh, executive vice president of Corinthian Colleges; and Andrew Rosen, president of Kaplan, Inc., will review the current state of for-profit higher education and higher education alternatives.

During the second panel, Daniel Levy, director of the Program for Research on Private Higher Education at SUNY-Albany; Vance Fried, a professor at Oklahoma State University; and AEI’s Richard Vedder will discuss the theoretical possibilities of higher education alternatives. Doug Lederman of Inside Higher Ed will moderate.