The Apollo Group, the $2.7 billion company that owns the University of Phoenix and other for-profit schools, has announced some changes in the way it plans to do business in the future. According to the company’s recently-released investor report:
We’ve implemented a series of additional student protections including financial literacy tools such as our Responsible Borrower Calculator, which encourages students to borrow only the amount they need for their education.
To… reinforce that our counselors are not pressured in any way to enroll a student who is not ready or prepared for University of Phoenix, we have announced that a new evaluation and compensation plan for our counselors will be rolled out University wide beginning this fall. In this new plan, no part of a counselor’s compensation will have any link to the number of students they enroll at our University.
The University of Phoenix is one American for-profit school investors don’t expect to be hurt by the Department of Education’s new gainful employment rule about debt levels at for-profit schools; most Phoenix graduates already have jobs that pay well enough that they can make regular payments on their student loans.
