MAE 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 6 (November/December)
People with community college degrees earn 29 percent or about $7,900 more annually compared with people with only a high school diploma, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trust’s Economic Mobility Project. The report is based on a database of education and earnings information on 84,000 students who graduated high school in 2000 and attended a public college in Florida.
While students with higher grade point averages were more likely to enroll and complete post-secondary education of some kind, the report found that the chosen field of concentration for post-secondary education had more of a positive correlation with higher income than high school GPAs.
“The study shows that community colleges have an opportunity to inform students about the economic returns of various fields of study,” study co-author Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Hudson Institute said in a press release. “In addition, colleges can offer additional career counseling for students who have financial problems and who are juggling family and work responsibilities. This information and support would likely increase rates of credential attainment, graduation and transfer to four-year programs.” The full report may be found at www.economicmobility.org.
Medical, MBA School Applications Rise
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) released new data showing that enrollment by first-year medical students rose 2 percent this year to about 18,400. Half the increase came from four new U.S. medical schools, the AAMC said: Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine; Scranton, Penn.- based Commonwealth Medical College; Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine; and the University of Central Florida College of Medicine.
Applicants for medical schools stayed about the same in 2009 compared with the year before, at 42,269. Male applicants slightly outnumbered female applicants. The number of black applicants rose about 4 percent, to 3,482, while the number of Hispanic applications dropped about 1 percent, to 3,061. More data on enrollment are available at www.aamc.org.
Meanwhile, 66 percent of full-time MBA programs reported increases in applications this year compared with 2008, when 77 percent reported application increases compared with the year before, according to the McLean, Va.-based Graduate Management Admission Council. Only 37 percent of executive MBA programs reported an increase in applications this year, the group said, compared with 60 percent in 2008.
Corinthian Colleges Acquires Heald
Santa Ana, Calif.-based Corinthian Colleges signed an agreement to acquire the parent company of regionally accredited Heald College, which is headquartered in San Francisco but operates nine campuses in Northern California and one each in Hawaii and Oregon, serving a total of approximately 12,300 students.
Heald primarily provides associate degrees in such fields as health care, business, law and information technology, and recently received permission from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges to offer fully online degrees. Corinthian currently operates five nationally accredited campuses in Northern California, operating what the school calls “shortterm diploma programs in health care, automotive technology and the trades.”
Corinthian will pay $395 million in cash for Heald in a transaction that it expects to complete by the end of March 2010.
UND Launches First Unmanned Vehicle Program
The University of North Dakota recently unveiled what it says is the world’s only collegiate program for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The new undergraduate major in unmanned aircraft systems operations should help meet the rapidly growing demand for qualified UAS pilots and sensor operators, according to the school.
Overseeing the program is UND’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Studies, which combines aviation education and flight training with a liberal arts core curriculum. university said that 7,822 students have graduated from aerospace school since it was founded in 1968.
School Briefs
• Kansas State University is now offering a bachelor’s in family studies and human services online through its division of continuing education. The degree focuses on human development as it relates to families, and could be useful for careers related to family and community service programs, the judicial system, elder care facilities and public health programs, according to the university. More information is available at www.dce.k-state.edu/humanecology/fshs.
• The Art Institutes recently opened a new school in Virginia Beach, with classes to begin in January 2010. Serving as a branch of what are about 40 Arts Institutes owned by Pittsburgh-based parent company Education Management, the new school offers bachelor’s degrees in advertising, culinary arts management, fashion and retail management, graphic design, interior design, Web design and more, as well as associate degrees in various creative fields.
• Charles Town, W.Va.-based American Public University System (APUS), which operates American Military University and American Public University, in October received the 2009 Ralph E. Gomory Award for Quality Online Education at the 15th annual conference of the Sloan Consortium, an organization of universities, colleges and institutions involved in online education.
“The consortium recognized [APUS] primarily for its excellence in collecting analytics across the enterprise, from managing enrollment and retention to assessing outcomes in student learning and faculty satisfaction,” said the Sloan Consortium’s Dr. Burks Oakley III in a press release. The Princeton Review, based in Framingham, Mass., announced plans to acquire online career education company Penn Foster Education Group for $170 million in cash. Owned by the private equity firm Wicks Group, Penn Foster’s various subsidiaries run degree and vocational programs in allied health, business, technology, education and various trades.
• An organization called the Colorado Association of Real Estate Investors launched a program called the College of American Real Estate Investors (CAREI), offering online learning and certification for independent real estate investors. CAREI said that the program, which is not affiliated with any university, was “formed to help investors master the fundamentals of their profession and also to help repair the negative image of the industry by establishing clear ethical guidelines.” More information is available at www.carei.org.
• Coastline Community College (CCC) in Orange County, Calif., received another five-year contract to serve as integrator of distance learning degree programs and services for the U.S. Navy College Program for Afloat College Education. As integrator, CCC brings together courses, degree programs and support services from eight academic institutions, including CCC itself, Central Texas College, Dallas Telecollege, ECPI College of Technology, Governors State University, Old Dominion University, Saint Leo University, Thomas Edison State College, the University of Oklahoma and Vincennes University. ♦