The Hechinger Report has just done a lengthy piece on OPMs. It mentions the Century Foundation report that came out recently and that I discussed here, but it seems too involved to have been triggered by just that report.
One issue it looks into that the Century Foundation report did not address in the same detail is whether these programs, whatever their other faults might be, are actually a good way of raising money.
Colleges often enter into these deals because they need the money. As enrollments and state appropriations have shrunk people have started looking to new sources of income. This process is the subject of Chris Newfield’s book The Great Mistake. Newfield does not actually address the OPM issue but all of the paths that he sees public universities following to try to find new sources of revenue never seem to fix the money problem of the schools that attempt them. OPMs it seems, are no better than research, or public private partnerships at generating revenue.
From the article:
Gephardt, of Moody’s, said he’s “skeptical” that online graduate degree programs offered through an OPM could provide a “net revenue salvation” that would compensate for other deep revenue challenges.
As Seymour noted: “For every dollar that flows to the OPM, that’s a dollar less in revenue that can be spent on other aspects that the institution may need. Over time, is the investment in the work that the OPM is doing and the revenue that online programs will bring in worth the offset?”
Howard Lurie, principal analyst at Eduventures Research, puts it more bluntly: “The companies have done well. The schools? It depends,” he said.