National Hispanic University, a 600-student college in San Jose, Calif. serving mostly adult Hispanic women, was yesterday saved from an uncertain financial future through its sale to Laureate Education. Laureate is a $3.5 billion company in Baltimore that owns more than 50 accredited colleges.
According to an article about the deal by Joe Rodriguez in the San Jose Mercury News:
One of the world’s largest owners of for-profit colleges has bought East San Jose’s National Hispanic University, throwing the idealistic but struggling campus into the growing and controversial world of corporate education.
While Laureate doesn’t reveal how much it pays for colleges, NHU officials described the deal as unusually favorable because they will retain ownership of the physical campus and have a say in the college’s future.
“This will allow us to become a Latino powerhouse in education,” said Provost Juan Necochea.
The “powerhouse” status is a little unclear but the sale certainly provides NHU with some much-needed cash. The school, founded in 1981, was in recent years mostly supported by a single donor, John Sobrato, a Silicon Valley real estate developer. Laureate plans to bring 8,000 online students to NHU programs.
Meanwhile, the Illinois-based Career Education Corporation announced last Thursday that it had taken over the principality of Monaco’s only institution of higher learning, the International University of Monaco, a 24-year-old school with programs in finance and business administration.
No word yet on the price tag for either school.
