State approves for-profit college's proposal to operate in Pa.

For the first time in the Philadelphia region, a university that exists for the purpose of making money could open its doors. The Pennsylvania Department of Education approved a plan earlier this month that would allow the University of Phoenix, a for-profit institution of higher learning, to operate in the state. It is the first school to be approved under a 1997 state law allowing for-profit colleges and universities to set up shop in Pennsylvania. The University of Phoenix, which has more than 60 campuses across the United States -- in such places as Sacramento, Calif., Oklahoma City, Columbia, Md., and Puerto Rico -- had its application approved earlier this month by State Education Secretary Eugene Hickok. Todd Nelson, president of Apollo Group, the publicly traded parent company of Phoenix, said that the placement of campuses in Pennsylvania has not yet been decided but that "Philadelphia would be a likely location." Nelson said the school's for-profit status does not change the quality of the programs of study it offers. "People don't understand at times, there's very little difference between a for-profit and a non-profit university," he said. There is "no difference as far as the quality of the education." Phoenix, which offers programs in such areas as business management and information technology, caters exclusively to adult professionals seeking to add degrees to their resumes. "We only serve working adult students," Nelson said, noting that Phoenix students must be at least 23 years old and work full-time in a professional job. Phoenix offers undergraduate and master's programs, he said, as well as a "distance learning" doctoral program in management. And while the school's faculty members are typically not full-time college professors, Nelson said, they are required to have a master's or doctoral degree and a minimum of five years of work experience in the area they teach. The teachers all have "quite a bit of experience before they get in the classroom," he noted. Many of Phoenix's students are sent to the university by their employers, often five or 10 at a time from some companies. The university also offers on-site programs which are taught at a corporation's offices, Nelson added. While Phoenix "might be" in competition with other universities' continuing education programs in areas like Philadelphia, he said, the university doesn't typically try to recruit directly against other schools. Administrators of programs at existing Philadelphia schools had mixed reactions to the announcement that Phoenix may soon enter the Philadelphia education market. Richard Hendrix, director of Penn's College of General Studies, said he doesn't think the introduction of a Phoenix campus in Philadelphia would be a threat to Penn or CGS. "Phoenix is not going to compete with our programs, which are selective and different in content," he said. But Robert Palestini, the dean of graduate and continuing studies at St. Joseph's University, said that the new school could have a larger impact on St. Joe's. "It certainly is another competitor in the marketplace," he said, noting that about half of St. Joseph's adult students are enrolled in business programs. "It's not going to have a positive effect." However, he said he would withhold judgment until he sees how Phoenix develops in Philadelphia. "It's difficult to say at this point until we see what [the University of Phoenix] has to offer," he said. "Adding another institution to the mix certainly is going to have a negative effect on one [school] or the other." Officials said Phoenix is not the only for-profit school currently interested in entering the potentially lucrative Pennsylvania higher education market. "We do have a handful of additional applications," Education Department Michele Haskins said.