A spokesman said that exploring the offer fits the system’s mission “of providing affordable, relevant education to a broad range of students and introducing the UA system to new educational markets”. The idea of buying Phoenix has been pushed by the Arkansas system’s president, Donald Bobbitt. “That caused me some concern,” he said, “and it’s more concerning now that we’re thinking to jump off in the deep water.”
But Mr Gibson said he has not been provided with enough information to judge the results. “And here we are, basically 10 years later, and the money has not been paid back,” said Mr Gibson.Īrkansas expanded eVersity in 2021 with the $1 purchase of the distressed online for-profit Grantham University, adding 4,000 students to its 800-student online-only unit. The Arkansas system created its own online unit, eVersity, a decade ago, with $5 million provided from its campuses. The chair of the Arkansas system’s trustees, Cliff Gibson, is a leading sceptic, based on Phoenix’s poor reputation and his system’s previous online ventures. Documents released by Arkansas illustrate the wider sales campaign by Phoenix, dating to the very beginning of the Biden administration, which took office promising a renewed crackdown on the for-profit sector.Īrkansas’ negotiations with Phoenix suggest a sales campaign that’s foundering on issues of trust in the company and its business model. The effort by Phoenix came into public view with reports that the University of Arkansas system is among the prospective buyers. “The number of scaled institutions with the technology infrastructure and experience to thrive in online education is limited, and the space will only continue to further consolidate,” Phoenix argues in its marketing brochure. Phoenix, now down to about 80,000 students, almost all online, has been aiming its sales offer at state university systems, warning them in a marketing pitch that its offer represents a best and final chance at gaining an experienced partner for making a large-scale move into online education. The 47-year-old for-profit institution, which once neared $5 billion (£4 billion) in annual revenue from 500,000 students at more than 130 campuses, has been trying since early 2021 to convince prospective buyers that it represents a valuable model of online institution reborn to dominate adult-oriented higher education. The University of Phoenix, once the largest online university in the US, has been trying without luck for two years to sell itself to a traditional higher education system.
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