Is UOP A Good Model for Tertiary Education in Developing Countries?
For-profit universities, such as UOP, are relatively new, but not unprecedented. While they provide a means of expanding access to tertiary education without substantial public sector expenditures, they also transfer the costs to the students and their families. In the U.S., that is feasible because of the large middle class with substantial discretionary income. It is also facilitated by the wide availability of federally insured student loans to help cover the tuition and fees. In poorer countries, the proportion of students and families that could afford the costs would be limited, and many of those countries do not yet have a system that encourages banks to make loans for education by insuring the banks against loan defaults. In addition, for-profit tertiary education has a mixed record in the U.S. Tertiary education institutions are generally not required to divulge information about their students, their completion rates, and graduates success. As a consequence, it is difficult f
