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| University of Phoenix |
The University of Phoenix (UPX, UOPX) is a for-profit institution of higher learning. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Group Inc. which is publicly traded (NASDAQ: APOL), an S&P 500 corporation based in Phoenix, Arizona. With a student body in North America second only to the State University of New York, it has a current enrollment of 420,700 undergraduate students and 78,000 graduate students, or 224,880 full-time equivalent students. The university has more than 200 campuses worldwide and confers degrees in over 100 degree programs at the associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels.
University of Phoenix has an open enrollment admission policy other than requiring a high-school diploma, GED, or its equivalent. The school also provides associate or bachelor's degree applicants opportunity for advanced placement through its prior learning assessment, which, aside from previous coursework, college credit can come from experiential learning essays, corporate training, and certificates or licenses.
Campuses and online services
The university has campuses and learning centers in 40 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Chile, and the Netherlands. While the school specializes in online programs, the campuses offer additional programs and services. Online students are also able to utilize tutoring and social centers, which can also be used for social and student meetings. The first center opened in 2007 in Plano, Texas. Students have access to class-specific online resources, which include an electronic library, textbooks, and other ancillary material required for a course. The university says that the electronic textbooks include search features and hyperlinks to glossary terms that make the books easier to use for research.
Through its online portal, eCampus, University of Phoenix students also have access to software required for coursework. Available, for example, are virtual companies created by the university to provide students with assignments, which Adam Honea, UOPX's dean and provost, claims are more realistic than those available with case studies.
Academics
The university offers degree programs through nine colleges. In addition to its traditional education programs, the school offers continuing education courses for teachers and practitioners, professional development courses for companies, and specialized courses of study for military personnel.
Students spend 20 to 24 hours with an instructor during each course, compared with about 40 hours at a traditional university. The university also requires students to collaborate by working on learning team projects, wherein the class will be divided into learning teams of four to five students. Each learning team is assigned a team forum where team members will discuss the project and submit their agreed upon portions of the learning team assignment for compilation by the nominated learning team leader. The concept of learning teams is somewhat uncommon in traditional academia; however, the University of Phoenix believes that collaborating on projects and having individuals rely on each other reflects the real working conditions of the corporate world.
Some academics and former students feel the abbreviated courses and the use of learning teams result in an inferior education. The University of Phoenix has been criticized for lack of academic rigor. Henry M. Levin, a professor of higher education at Teachers College at Columbia University, called its business degree an "MBA Lite," saying "I’ve looked at [its] course materials. It’s a very low level of instruction." One instructor at the university also explained that he could only cover a fraction of the syllabus because he said that the university required him to cram too much information into too few sessions. It is argued that for-profit institutions in general represent low academic quality. Critics charge that students of such schools often find their degrees to be worthless when they do not help the students get jobs.
Students
The average age of a University of Phoenix student is between 33 (undergraduate) and 36 (graduate), and most students have work-related commitments. The University states that nearly two-thirds of its students are women and that a plurality of students attending the school study business (undergraduate students representing 29.9% and graduate students 12.9%), followed closely by those enrolled in Axia College for Associate's degrees (28.1%).
The student population is approximately 25% African-American and almost 13% Latino. The university graduates the largest number of underrepresented students with Master's degrees in business, health care, and education than any other U.S. school. The University of Phoenix was also named one of the nation's top 20 institutions of higher education favorable to military personnel, according to the December 2008 issue of Military Advanced Education. Nearly 29,000 active-duty military, their spouses, and veterans were enrolled in University of Phoenix degree programs at that time with more than 7,200 military members or veterans graduated from the university during that year.
When calculated by the federal standard used by the Department of Education, UOPX's overall graduation rate is 16%, which, when compared to the national average of 55%, is among the nation's lowest. The federal standard measures graduation rates as the percentage of first-time undergraduates who obtain a degree within six years. The number is significantly lower at its Southern California campus (6%) and its online programs (4%). This measurement does not take into consideration the typical University of Phoenix student who comes to the University as a dropout from another institution, so is not a first-time college student. University of Phoenix acknowledges the 16% graduation rate but takes exception to the Federal standard used to calculate the rate, noting that the rate is based upon criteria that apply to only 7% of UOPX's student population. The institution publishes its own nonstandard graduation rate of 59% to account for its large population of non-traditional students.
Faculty
The university's faculty consists of approximately 1,500 core faculty and 20,000 associate (part-time or adjunct) faculty members who all hold master's or doctorate degrees. UOPX's reliance on part-time faculty—95 percent of Phoenix instructors teach part time, compared to an average of 47 percent nationwide—has been criticized by regulators and academic critics. UOPX's instructors describe themselves as delivering course material, since most of the classes are centrally crafted and standardized across teachers in order to ensure consistency and reduce costs for the school. Additionally, faculty members do not get tenure. According to a University of Phoenix officer, pre-screened instructional candidates participate in a training program in the discipline in which they teach, which he states has the effect of weeding out 40%–50% of the less committed or capable applicants.
African-Americans make up more than 15% of the university's 22,000 faculty members, and about 6% are Latino.
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