Private for-profit institutions have been the fastest growing part of the U.S. higher education sector. For-profit enrollment increased from 0.2 percent to 9.1 percent of total enrollment in degree-granting schools from 1970 to 2009 and for-profit institutions account for the majority of enrollments in non-degree granting postsecondary schools. We describe the schools, students, and programs in the for-profit higher education sector, its phenomenal recent growth, and its relationship to the

more »

... ral and state governments. Using the 2004 to 2009 Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) longitudinal survey we assess outcomes of a recent cohort of first-time undergraduates who attended for-profits relative to comparable students who attended community colleges or other public or private non-profit institutions. We find that relative to these other institutions, for-profits educate a larger fraction of minority, disadvantaged, and older students, and they have greater success at retaining students in their first year and getting them to complete short programs at the certificate and AA levels. But we also find that for-profit students end up with higher unemployment and "idleness" rates and lower earnings six years after entering programs than do comparable students from other schools, and that they have far greater student debt burdens and default rates on their student loans. Private for-profit institutions have become an increasingly visible part of the U.S. higher education sector. They are today the most diverse by program and size, have been the fastest growing, have the highest fraction of nontraditional students, and obtain the greatest proportion of their total revenue from federal student aid (loan and grant) programs. They are, as well, the subjects of high-profile investigations of late and are facing major regulatory changes. Today's for-profit postsecondary schools were preceded a century ago by a group of proprietary schools that were also responding to an explosion in demand for technical, vocational and applied subjects. Business, managerial, and secretarial skills were in great demand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and a multitude of proprietary institutions emerged that taught accounting, management, real estate, stenography and typing. The numbers and enrollments of these institutions were greatly reduced when public high schools expanded and increased their offerings in the business and vocational areas. But many survived and morphed into some of the current for-profits, such as Blair College