President Speaks: To place college students first, schools must rethink the OPM mannequin

This summer time, the College of Arizona International Campus introduced that it might terminate its relationship with Zovio, the for-profit firm that when supplied companies to UAGC. That call introduced an early finish to what started in late 2020 as a 15-year settlement with the corporate.

We minimize ties with Zovio due to a elementary distinction between our institutional missions. 

Zovio was a web based program administration firm, or OPM. Like most different OPMs, its operations centered on producing leads and recruiting college students — extra so than retention and scholar success. In alternate for its companies, Zovio took a minimize of UAGC’s income. We discovered we had irreconcilable variations as a result of this strategy was not student-centered.

Bringing the accountability for managing our on-line applications throughout the purview of our administrators opens the door to rising effectivity, decreasing prices and bettering scholar outcomes. It has created a chance to pair non-public improvements with the potential — and values — of upper training. I imagine that is crucial to extra profitable outcomes and hope extra establishments comply with go well with by radically rethinking their strategy to OPMs. 

UAGC is just not alone in reconsidering its relationship with the OPM mannequin. With rising coverage and regulatory scrutiny, extra faculty leaders are asking robust questions on whether or not this mannequin is appropriate with the wants of scholars or conducive to their success and outcomes. In a number of key respects, longtime critics of the outsourced, revenue-sharing mannequin of OPMs have been proper to be so skeptical.

The pressures confronted by publicly traded corporations like Zovio — and even non-public companies — create monetary incentives for OPMs which are hardly ever in one of the best pursuits of scholars and educators. 

Too usually, OPMs have helped establishments’ on-line studying applications to scale at the price of scholar outcomes. Outsourcing crucial capabilities reminiscent of enrollment, advertising, scholar advising and monetary support is at odds with the promise and aspirations of upper training.

On the identical time, the rise of OPMs and establishments’ rising reliance on them is, in some methods, comprehensible. As on-line studying has expanded lately, the continuity and seamless service OPMs may present to establishments was tough to disclaim or, definitely, to copy. Many schools and universities lacked the capability to handle on-line applications on such a scale on their very own. That want solely grew as demand for digital studying exploded throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following our separation from Zovio, UAGC has not solely undertaken efforts that shift the construction and accountability for crucial choices round enrollment, advertising and scholar advising to a totally in-house staff, it unlocked assets that can allow us to make investments that higher align with our mission: offering grownup learners with inexpensive faculty credentials that put together them for careers in a quickly evolving world economic system.

Financial savings from elevated effectivity and diminished prices can be reinvested within the scholar expertise — and completely at our discretion. Not stifled by the contractual obligations of an organization primarily motivated by revenue, our school and workers are already expressing they’ve larger freedom to innovate and discover new methods to boost scholar success. We’re all aligned underneath one widespread purpose, working collectively to maneuver the establishment in the identical route.

After all, not each establishment can purchase the capabilities of an OPM to allow such a metamorphosis. Nonetheless, all schools and universities can start to reappraise their relationships with OPM suppliers. Establishments can deliver as many companies as they will underneath one roof and search out high-quality, mission-aligned companions to assist, not unilaterally present, these companies. 

They may additionally transfer towards a hybrid mannequin of on-line program administration. This might contain establishments supplementing their inner experience with fee-for-service contracts with third-party distributors aligned with their targets and values.