The Gloves Are Off: What a Deal Between a Mega-University and a Community-College System Says About the Fight for Students – The Chronicle of Higher Education
I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, covering innovation in and around academe. Here’s what I’m thinking about this week.
A transfer agreement that shows the gloves are off.
Transfer agreements don’t usually signal a sea change. The one that Pennsylvania’s community-college system just announced with Southern New Hampshire University may be one that does. It also raises a lot of interesting issues about the increasing competition for students — it’s a market out there, folks — and whether expectations for relationships among public-college systems are going out the window.
But first, the basics: Last week the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges announced a broad partnership with Southern New Hampshire University that will provide students from the system’s 14 colleges with a hassle-free transfer pathway to the online giant. For the most part, as The Philadelphia Inquirer noted, they’ll pay less to complete their bachelor’s degree than they would if they went to Penn State World Campus or one of the four-year colleges in the state public-college system.