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Tag Archives: Kaplan


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Faculty Power Wins at Purdue! Forced Arbitration Dropped

American Association of University Professors members in Indiana have won another victory to reclaim Purdue University for students, not corporate profit.

After mounting pressure from an Indiana AAUP statewide campaign, the Kaplan-run Purdue University Global has announced an end to the use of a mandatory arbitration agreement against students. The agreement, contained within documents required for enrollment in the online university, stripped students of their legal rights to sue or join a class action lawsuit in cases of abuse. Kaplan, a for-profit university purchased by Purdue in 2017 and charged with running its online campus, has been the subject of multiple federal and state investigations for misleading marketing, inaccurate job placement numbers, and other false claims.

This victory was won by faculty-powered organizing. Will you take action to reclaim online college courses from private, corporate management by downloading the Education Not Privatization toolkit? The toolkit contains a primer on the rise of corporate online education, what’s at stake for faculty and students, and actions you can take to shape quality, faculty-led online courses at your institution.

Purdue Global announced that they will drop the abusive enrollment policy after the Indiana AAUP and allies brought it to light. Activists alerted regional accrediting agency the Higher Learning Commission, and eight AAUP chapters and several university senates in the state passed resolutions demanding an end to mandatory arbitration against students. The victory arrives on the heels of another recent faculty win at Purdue in fall 2018 when Indiana AAUP’s public pressure campaign successfully ended the use of non-disclosure agreements as a condition of faculty employment.

Recent wins by Indiana AAUP chapters set crucial limits to the privatization of public higher education, which threatens to erode academic freedom, shared governance, educational quality, and ultimately student success. These limits establish a precedent for faculty at colleges and universities around the country who want to reclaim higher education for students, not corporate profit.

You can reclaim your institution’s online education from private, profit-driven, corporate control and place it in the hands of faculty by downloading the toolkit here.

In Solidarity,
Bill V. Mullen
Professor of American Studies, Purdue University
Vice-president of Purdue AAUP

P.S. For more on the end to mandatory arbitration read Inside Higher Ed’s ”Purdue Global Nixes Student Arbitration Agreement” and for more on the fall 2018 NDA win, check out Inside Higher Ed’s “Purdue Global Nondisclosure Agreement Gone.”


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Privatization in Online Ed

Privatization of online higher education is on the rise. For-profit online education corporations like Academic Partnerships, Kaplan, Wiley, Pearson, and Blackboard contract with public and private nonprofit institutions to provide digital platforms for educational content, recruit students, manage enrollment, facilitate the development of course materials, and more. While the use of digital platforms and online teaching tools can enrich education, elements of the contracts that institutions make with for-profit online education corporations can present problems in areas of interest to faculty, particularly academic freedom and shared governance.

Your AAUP chapter can meaningfully shape the quality of online education at your institution. Check out our Education Not Privatization toolkit here.

To find out more about how online education is operating at different institutions, the AAUP launched an informal privatization survey this fall.

So far more than four hundred respondents have spoken up about online education contracts at their institutions, and this is what they have to say:

  • Shared governance takes a backseat. 57 percent disagreed with the statement “faculty exercised oversight of the education components of the contract.”
  • Quality is not a focus.  66 percent disagreed with the statement “educational quality has improved as a result of the contract.”
  • Reputation may be at risk. 74 percent disagreed with the statement “the reputation of our institution will be improved because of the contract.”

The emerging themes are clear. Shared governance is not playing a robust role in the development of online education contracts, and as a result quality and reputation may not meet the highest standards. There is a solution: faculty can develop their own proposals for these contracts and demand a seat at the table.

Your AAUP chapter has the power to shape online offerings at your institution and change the course of privatization in higher education. Check out the toolkit here.

Monica Owens
Political Organizer, AAUP

P.S. Join us on Wednesday, October 24, at 1pm ET for a live discussion with David Hughes of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT chapter to hear about the chapter’s anti-privatization efforts and get tips for your own chapter campaign (RSVP here).


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Reclaim Online Education from Corporate Control

Faculty across the country are experiencing a major trend toward privatization of higher education. For-profit online education corporations like Academic Partnerships, Kaplan, Wiley, and Pearson contract with institutions to provide digital platforms for educational content, recruit students, manage enrollment, facilitate the development of course materials, and more. According to a Century Foundation report, the vast majority of US public colleges and universities that offer online education programs or courses now rely on external companies.

While the use of digital platforms and online teaching tools can enrich higher education, the for-profit nature of these contracts can compromise educational quality, student privacy, the reputation of the institution, and faculty governance.

AAUP chapters across the country are building a movement to challenge corporate control of online education. Will you help by answering a few brief questions about for-profit online education contracts on your campus?

AAUP faculty have been successfully building power against for-profit online education for years. In 2013, the Rutgers AAUP/AFT chapter successfully challenged the institution’s partnership with Pearson and organized colleagues to opt-out of Pearson-run courses that compromised educational quality and academic freedom.

Now faculty at Purdue University, Eastern Michigan University, and others are taking on for-profit online education deals that compromise educational quality, faculty governance, and the reputation of the institution. Just last week Purdue faculty and the Indiana AAUP scored a huge victory in the campaign to bring an end to required nondisclosure agreements at Purdue University Global, the new Kaplan-run online branch of Purdue University.

AAUP faculty are joining together to reclaim online higher education from corporate control, and we need your help. Answer a few brief questions about for-profit online education contracts on your campus here.

Together we can reclaim faculty power and online education from corporate control.

Monica Owens
Political Organizer, AAUP


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They’re Privatizing Purdue

In five days the Higher Learning Commission, Purdue’s regional accrediting body, will vote on the final step toward privatization. If the HLC votes in favor, online courses at public land-grant Purdue University will be produced and run by for-profit higher ed corporation Kaplan.

The Indiana conference of the AAUP, along with the Purdue Social Justice Coalition, Hoosiers for Action, UnKoch My Campus, In the Public Interest, American Federation of Teachers, and elected officials across the state of Indiana have mounted a bold coalition-based resistance to this privatization deal. But we need your help.

Stand with us in urging the Higher Learning Commission to vote against accrediting Kaplan’s online program at Purdue until issues of transparency, student welfare, and academic quality are resolved. Sign our #KeepPurduePublic petition.

Additionally, if you’re a community leader, serving as a local elected official or at the helm of an organization, sign our Leader Sign-on Letter.

Kaplan is notorious. And the lack of transparency with which the Purdue-Kaplan deal has been advanced is troubling — even more so when considering Kaplan’s record of unaccountability to their students.

As Senators Dick Durbin and Sherrod Brown point out in their September 2017 letter cautioning Purdue University President Mitch Daniels: “Like nearly every major for-profit college, Kaplan has been the subject of numerous state and federal investigations and lawsuits. In 2014, the company reached a settlement with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to settle allegations that it made misleading marketing claims to Florida students. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey reached a settlement with Kaplan in 2015 related to inflated job placement numbers and unfair recruiting practices. Also in 2015, the company agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice more than $1 million to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit.”

Tell the Higher Learning Commission to #KeepPurduePublic and say #NoKaplan.

Or if you’re a community leader, sign here.

This is just one piece of a bold coalition-based movement we’re building to keep privatization out of public higher education. We hope you’ll join us.

In Solidarity,
David P. Nalbone, PhD
Purdue University Northwest
Vice President, Indiana Conference of the AAUP

P.S. Here’s even more background information on the Purdue-Kaplan deal to share with friends and colleagues: