Grand Canyon College’s on-line enrollment tops 86,000 college students, reversing declines — science weblog
Dive Temporary:
- Grand Canyon Schooling, an academic providers firm, reported this week that its largest consumer, Grand Canyon College, noticed on-line enrollment tick up after experiencing heavy declines all through final 12 months.
- The college’s on-line enrollment grew to 86,065 college students by the top of March, up 1.6% from the identical time final 12 months. Complete enrollment at Grand Canyon College, a non-public Christian establishment in Arizona, elevated 2.5% 12 months over 12 months to 108,633, partly as a consequence of robust progress in on-campus college students.
- Grand Canyon College’s enrollment progress helped enhance GCE’s backside line, which noticed income enhance to $250.1 million in fiscal 2023’s first quarter, up 2.5% in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months. Grand Canyon College offers round 60% of its tuition and price income to GCE in return for providers like advertising and marketing and counseling.
Dive Perception:
Brian Mueller, who serves as each the CEO of GCE and the president of Grand Canyon College, attributed the enrollment enhance to a number of latest initiatives. They embody rolling out new educational applications, in addition to working with firms within the healthcare, monetary providers and expertise sectors to coach their workers.
New on-line enrollment progress is predicted to proceed within the second quarter, Mueller stated throughout a name with analysts Tuesday. GCE additionally projected that it will herald as much as $965.1 million in income in fiscal 2023, which might be a big enhance over the $911.3 million in income the 12 months earlier than.
Mueller echoed feedback he made earlier within the 12 months defending GCE’s enterprise mannequin. The corporate closely depends on tuition-share agreements, which assure that it’s going to earn a portion of its purchasers’ income in return for offering a wide range of academic providers, together with advertising and marketing and recruitment.
The U.S. Division of Schooling introduced earlier this 12 months that it’s reviewing 2011 steerage permitting firms like GCE to strike income share agreements with schools for recruitment and different providers. Lawmakers have more and more raised issues that these offers push firms to aggressively recruit college students to spice up their backside strains.
“Critics level to the revenue-share mannequin as unhealthy for universities,” Mueller stated on Tuesday’s name. “The previous two years have confirmed them improper, and we count on within the subsequent 12 months, this may change into much more obvious.”
Mueller argued that GCE takes on a lot of the monetary danger for its purchasers, particularly throughout inflationary durations or when demand for increased schooling declines.
“Our experience, applied sciences and processes have allowed our college companions to proceed to learn throughout these difficult instances,” Mueller stated.