WASHINGTON, D.C. – In light of weak federal regulations and lackluster completion rates at for-profit colleges, students should be armed with the kind of questions they need to ask to make sure the colleges deliver on what they promise.
That’s one of the main points that higher education experts made Monday at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 2012 Young Latino Leaders Summit during a panel discussion titled “Latinos in Private For-Profit Institutions and College Completion.”
“I think the for-profit sector definitely has a role in getting us to where we need to get as a nation,” said Jose Cruz, Vice President for Higher Education Policy and Practice at the Education Trust, a D.C.-based group that advocates for closing the achievement gap, in reference to the Obama Administration’s college completion agenda of making the United States the most college-educated nation in the world.
“But they need to step up to the plate and fulfill the promise,” Cruz said of the for-profits. “Basically what they are selling students is access to careers, and then they’re not delivering.”
Black, Hispanic, Asian or American Indian students accounted for nearly 40 percent of total enrollment at for-profit schools in 2007, but only 31 percent and 25 percent of enrollment in public and private non-profit institutions, respectively, according to a new Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute white paper released at the event and titled “Recruiting the Growing Minority: Latino Enrollment Practices in For-Profit Colleges and Universities.”
The paper – written by 2011-2012 CHCI Higher Education Graduate Fellow Enrique Soto – also notes that Hispanics at for-profits completed their degrees at a rate of 25 percent, versus 60 percent at private nonprofits and 46 percent at public institutions.
In light of the disproportionately high enrollment and low completion rates for minority students at the for-profits, which charge a much higher tuition than their non-profit and public counterparts, Cruz suggested that minority students who are thinking about enrolling in a for-profit college should ask:
