Mintz: Online Program Managers are enabling “vulture capitalism” in higher ed

Citing Kevin Carey’s indictment of Online Program Managers, Steven Mintz writes that “in exchange for start-up funding, colleges and universities are increasingly ceding core functions to profit-making companies and, as a result, delivering any cost savings into the hands of the vendors and the digital marketing platforms that they utilize.” According to Mintz, elite institutions throughout the US have legitimated this practice while the actual quality of online programs remains opaque. Additionally, Mintz claims, revenue-sharing agreements favour OPMS. The author concludes that the status quo has created an environment in which a growing number of institutions have become “chronic invalids” as scarce resources generate diminishing quality and sagging reputations in large parts of the higher education sector. Inside Higher Ed (International)