Wayne,
Thank you for joining the forum. As many of us are aware not every employee at every college has been truthful and forthright. As time passes I would hope to see the negativity diminish...unfortunately, it is more difficult to recoup a reputation than to build one from scratch. Every day we have the opportunity to make the right decision.
Cindy Bryant
I find your response interesting. Perhaps the reason for that bigger microscope and negative press might be the manipulative tactics utilized by some institutions to recruit students.
The regulatory environment has changed significantly since I began a career in proprietary education in 2009. Admissions representatives are no longer motivated using practices that "pay by the enrollment" Fortunately for students and prospective students more care is given to honesty, transparency and being forthright toward every student and prospective student thanks to a more regulated admissions environment.
Ana,
Hi! Thanks for sharing how your school has handle the heightened monitoring from different agencies. It sounds as if you are truly on top of compliance.
Cindy Bryant
The regulatory changes of the past few years have created a culture of compliance at my institution that is now carefully monitored and constantly audited. These upgraded measures, including more stringent training requirements & improved SOPs serve us all well in deterring questionable practices and misinformation.
DaleAnne,
Sometimes managing more than one accrediting agency can become overwhelming hopefully the reduction to one accreditor will allow you to manage processes more efficiently.
Cindy Bryant
We went from one accrediting agency to two and then back to one just this year. a lot of things to remember but if we all "do the right thing" it's very easy to be successful.
Tina,
Thank you so much for sharing how the change in the regulatory environment has impacted your school. It sounds as if your school has made many changes for the good as a result of the increased scrutiny.
Cindy Bryant
Randy,
Excellent analysis. The rapid expansion of career schools may have created a threat to the traditional colleges and universities. In comparison it was proven that career schools were graduating students at a higher success rate. Additionally, the students were better prepared for their chosen career.
Cindy Bryant
Frankly, while I agree with many of the posts, it seems that something bigger is behind the increase. For profit and even not for profit institutions are at the leading edge of designing and delivering programs that are suited to the needs on individual learners and because of that, many of the existing powers feel threatened and so, rather than trying to partner and collaborate, they resort demeaning new ideas.
There has been greater government scrutiny over non-profits due to concerns over alleged aggressive admissions marketing practices, high default rates on student loans and students are getting out of school and not getting jobs.
Faculty and staff know that everyone has to do and say the right thing and that the organization has to be transparent.
The regulations by the Department of Ed have become stricter over the last few years, specifically for career colleges. Schools need high graduation numbers as well as placement numbers. This ensures the Title IV aid is used for industries where students can obtain viable employment after graduation and are able to pay their loans back. It has impacted my institution in many ways. My industry has only recently become licensed in my state. This regulation change has made our standards higher. We have become even more focused on graduation rates, assisting students in completion. We have increased the Career Services Department for this licensure and to assist with students obtaining employment after graduation. I believe that can only help our students to trust the industry and believe that they can have a long and profitable career.
Ilene,
It has become increasingly difficult to maintain a compliant environment in the area of cost containment. The campuses are more than willing to initiate compliance methods but the cost is high and as you mentioned many small campuses must outsource or downsize their staff to be able to incorporate all of the compliance metrics necessary. However, compliance is critical to protect the public.
Cindy Bryant
I found agreement with this comment. I, too, work for a smaller school and impacts of an increased regulatory environment is multiple. First, it has caused our school to increase cost and time to maintain ethics and professionalism. Secondly, building communication and understanding from all school departments on regulations and transparency has benefited our team cohesion and support of one another. Finally, it is another way of ensuring that the high standards of our programs meet and result in students graduating with applicable career knowledge and success.
Iza,
THank you for sharing the positive impact that Program Integrity has had on your school. The regulations were put in place to protect the students and it sounds like it is working well at your school.
Cindy Bryant
The regulatory environment has changed in the past few years exerting more control over higher education business practices to ensure educational quality with the highest degree of integrity. These regulatory changes have impacted our campus in a positive way by ensuring that we solely focus on the student welfare by establishing and enforcing practices which contribute to the development of the student's success and preparing them for the competitive workforce. Several recruitment practices were aligned for the better as well as new policies established to ensure we always work with the student's success in mind.
Sterling,
You are right! The spotlight on career schools has skewed the general public views on our commitment to training in the U.S. The good thing that has come out of this scrutiny is transparency. Transparency has placed us all on level playing field.
Cindy Bryant
The regulatory environment has changed over the past few years by causing schools to report gainful employment statistics that were not requested before. This has put a much larger attention on our Career Services' success in placement and has required our school, and others, to place the statistics of our successes and oportunities on our main webpage for all to see. This can directly affect our enrollments in both postitive and negative ways depending on the success of our placements.
In the past year its has been a veery dramatly change in the enviroment since the goverment had make alot of changes and has impact in our school.
Unfortunately I have only been in the education field for the past couple of years. I have not seen too many changes in that short time but I am constantly seeing changes to financial aid guidelines which has impacted some elibibiity for students. It is important that as financial aid representatives we are constantly making sure that we are up to date on the latest changes.
