Today’s growing student debt reflects growing higher education demand, shortage of supply, price increases, a few unscrupulous players who leverage the 90% of tuition federal student debt rule for investor profits, and cut-backs in state support of traditional campuses. The solution is competition from public providers at in-state pricing that can grow to serve the needs of millions of adult students.
Today, as it was back then, Colorado State’s mission as a land grant university is to provide access to quality education for all. And as an online branch of the University system, CSU OnlinePlus takes that mission even further.
It started with a realization in the 1860s, commonplace now, but at that time a rather groundbreaking notion: education that was only available to the upper classes just didn’t suit a democratic society. Honest Abe agreed, and signed the Morrill Act into law, providing for grants of public land to establish colleges. In 1870 then-Territorial Governor Edward MCook authorized the creation of what today is called Colorado State University.
Online is big. Online is cool. Online is hot. The world comes to you through your smartphone, tablet or laptop, right? So if you’re taking a class or working on a degree, you might ask “Why do we need college campuses?” Let’s think about it.
A few trends that took hold in 2011 are very interesting. First, the emergence of public/private partnerships – like Arizona State University with Pearson/eCollege and Educating Sales and Marketing. In this example, a Carnegie 1 research campus publicly announced a goal of growing to 100,000 distance students and using private money and methods to manage the marketing, recruiting retention, and business challenges.
November 8 marked the launch of the Colorado Governor’s and Governor elect’s Complete College in Colorado Program. We are all bound by a common goal around this program.
For the private online higher education providers, the world is turning upside down. The quality of the ‘privates’ varies from superb to pretty bad, but one thing is clear. They are the world’s best at converting Federal financial aid into revenue and cash flow for investors.
I was very sad to read that Westwood College had its accreditation suspended. As Colorado State University enters the online and distance market more aggressively, I take time to remind my team that these universities did us a great service by investing billions in the development of the market, teaching capacity, technology, and methodologies.
Over the past month, Colorado State University has been ranked among some of the top colleges and universities in the United States. These awards include “Top 100 National Universities”, “America’s Best Colleges”, and “Best in the West”.
