UA wants to buy for-profit college for online efforts
Arizona plans to acquire Ashford University assets
The University of Arizona is making a big play into the online college market by acquiring a for-profit college and creating a nonprofit online university called University of Arizona Global Campus.
UA announced Monday that it intends to acquire the assets of Ashford University, a for-profit college with about 35,000 students across the country and create the new private nonprofit Global Campus.
The move likely will make UA more of a player in the market for online students, particularly those who aren’t traditional college freshmen. Arizona State University and Grand Canyon University already are strong brands in the online-only student sphere.
“We see this as an important step in expanding the reach of the University of Arizona,” said Brent White, UA’s vice provost for global affairs.
He noted that Ashford University’s students largely are adult learners, and many come from regions outside of UA’s typical sphere. UA said the Global Campus will focus on students who are typically underrepresented in higher education, like older adults, parents and veterans.
White said UA sees the venture as a way to deliver on its mission as a landgrant university that will “provide access to education as broadly as possible to students.”
UA is purchasing Ashford for $1 from Zovio, an education technology services company based in Chandler, White said.
Zovio had wanted to transition to fully focus on education technology, and was spinning off a separate nonprofit university when the deal with UA came together.
The transaction is expected to be completed later this year, after regulatory approvals are granted and the deal is finalized. Zovio would still provide education technology services to the Global Campus under a long-term agreement, UA said.
A regulatory filing from Zovio says the services will include “recruiting, financial aid, counseling, institutional support, information technology, and academic support services.”
While adding Ashford’s 35,000 students will greatly expand UA’s online portfolio, it will still lag behind online enrollment at ASU and GCU, at least at the outset.
GCU had more than 80,000 students enrolled online as of 2019. ASU’s online enrollment topped 66,000 in the 20192020 academic year, ASU said. UA currently has about 4,200 students enrolled online.
The University of Phoenix, also based in Arizona, had about 84,400 students enrolled online as of earlier this year, according to the Phoenix Business Journal. The school doesn’t have a large ground campus presence, making it slightly different from the ASU and GCU brands, and from UA’s plan to expand.
The Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees UA, issued a statement Monday in support of the idea, saying the board believes the move aligns with Arizona’s public universities’ promise to “increase affordable access to quality education,” and is an example of “innovation and entrepreneurialism.”
“With today’s announcement, University of Arizona President Robbins has demonstrated he is thinking big . ...
The arrangement also instantly makes the university a significant player in online higher education, and has the potential to create a stable and muchneeded additional revenue stream to support Arizona resident student education and university operations,” said Larry Penley, the chairman of the Board of Regents.
The plan also could help alleviate potential enrollment drops, particularly of on-campus students, that are expected to result from the COVID-19 pandemic. UA has announced plans to furlough and cut pay for workers and has already cut some jobs in anticipation of these enrollment declines.
UA has explored ways to expand its reach for the past year or so, White said, before the pandemic.
“I will say of course that COVID-19 has made this ever more important now, the ability to reach students wherever they are, to reach them agnostic to whether or not you have a campus, is important,” White said. “And certainly a big part of the future of higher education is the ability to serve students, even if you cannot be on a campus. I think this is a trend that will only accelerate.”
UA, Zovio and Ashford said there should not be any disruptions for current Ashford students.
Ashford is accredited by Western Association of Schools and Colleges’ Senior College and University Commission, which will need to approve the change in order for the Global Campus to formally operate as a new entity. UA said it will take “immediate steps” to get the final approval from the accrediting body.
Ashford’s information page says the newly created university will continue
to be headquartered in San Diego.
The newly created Global Campus will be a private nonprofit university, not public like UA, White said.
Ashford has come under fire for some of its practices in the past.
The college was at risk of losing GI Bill funds after an investigation by the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2017 detailed how the college chose Arizona as its headquarters after facing stricter oversight in California. The VA said the college needed to be fully approved in California or move fully to Arizona, according to the Chronicle.
In February 2020, the VA approved Ashford’s application for VA education benefits eligibility.
In a 2019 letter from its accrediting body, Ashford received a “notice of concern.” The body said it had “longstanding concerns regarding Ashford University’s student persistence and completion rates and performance on other student success metrics.” The college needed to significantly improve, the accrediting body wrote.
An interim report related to the concerns was set to be due Nov. 1, with a special visit from the accrediting body set for fall 2021, the letter said.
White said the UA is aware of the “controversies surrounding Ashford University.” He said Ashford leaders have addressed UA’s concerns, and both entities share a mission of access to higher education.