Are OPMs The New Predatory For-Profit Colleges?
Edward Conroy
June 23,2022
Correction: an earlier version of this article suggested 2U does not publish enrollment numbers. They do publish enrollment numbers in their quarterly reports, the article has been updated to reflect that.
Proponents believe online education is the future of higher education, providing ease of access, more flexible learning, and the opportunity to engage students wherever they are. The pandemic has shown that many universities can pivot to online education when needed, but creating effective, fully online programs is still hard. Perhaps that is why many online programs at public universities are run by private corporations known as Online Program Managers (OPMs). Worryingly, these private companies bear many of the predatory hallmarks—aggressive recruiting and targeting minoritized students—we saw in for-profit colleges like Corinthian and ITT Tech, both of which collapsed after years of hoovering up as many federal dollars as possible, harming tens of thousands of students in the process.
