For-profit higher education in the United States refers to the
commercialization
Commercialization or commercialisation is the process of introducing a new product or production method into commerce—making it available on the market. The term often connotes especially entry into the mass market (as opposed to entry into ...
and
privatization
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
of American higher education institutions.
For-profit colleges
Proprietary colleges are for-profit colleges and universities. They are operated by their owners or investors, rather than a not-for-profit institution, religious organization, or government. Because they are not funded by tax money, their long ...
have been the most recognizable for-profit institutions, but commercialization has been a part of US higher education for centuries. Privatization of public institutions has also been increasing since at least the 1980s.
History
For-profit colleges in the U.S. have their origins in the Colonial Era.
According to AJ Angulo, 19th century for-profit colleges offering practical skills expanded across the United States, meeting a demand for practical job training. In the 1830s and 1840s, proprietary business schools in Boston, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia offered penmanship and accounting classes. The expansion continued in the 1850s and 1860s, to Chicago, New Orleans, Memphis, and San Jose. Angulo estimated that there were 2,000 for-profit colleges with more than 240,000 students during the period, if fly-by-night schools were included. The
Bryant & Stratton Chain School grew to about 50 schools by 1864. As early as 1892, the University of Chicago operated a correspondence school, a money-making strategy emulated by many other universities. The decline of