A little more than two years ago, a very odd education couple got hitched.
Joined in union were Purdue University, one of Indiana’s flagship public universities, and Kaplan University, the large, for-profit, mostly online college. They were one when Purdue announced a deal to buy Kaplan University.
They were an odd couple because Kaplan University, like many for-profit, online schools, was a profiteering bad boy. It had been called out, sued and sanctioned by regulators and others for some disturbing practices and suspect quality. And Purdue was a public, highly-regarded research university. Together they would create Purdue Global.
The reasons for the union were straight forward. For-profit colleges were collapsing, and in Purdue, Kaplan found an exit from that gloomy, nearly certain future. They also found what they anticipated to be a viable revenue path in the form of a 30-year deal to run just about everything at the new school except teaching. The arrangement could also allow a Kaplan company to split some student tuition revenue and cash out some other incentives.