I am writing because I believe that ITT Technical Institute may be trying to circumvent the "program integrity" mentioned on your web site regarding the gainful employment regulations:
Dated: September 24
"The Department of Education today announced that it is on schedule to implement new regulations of the for-profit education sector dealing with gainful employment and 13 other issues to protect students and taxpayers... Final regulations to ensure program integrity in federal financial aid programs are scheduled for publication on or around November 1, and will go into effect on July 1..."
The new regulations, in my opinion, focuses on the marketing practices to new students, relationships to federal funding, and employment strategies of for-profit education providers. However, I believe that ITT is partially moving the marketing of students to the academic area. They are calling this marketing strategy as the "re-entry" program. The focal point of this program is to gain 10% of the gross dropped student for the previous trailing 12-months. A bonus program was also attached if you achieve a certain percentage above the 10% (star bonus). Here is where I believe this strategy becomes unethical and an effort to circumvent the new regulations. If a student is dropped from a quarter, then that student is a drop for every quarter in the trailing 12-month period which means some students are counted at least 3 more times than the 1 time that student was dropped. For example, for the March quarter of the new year, ITT counts the trailing 12 months of drops which is counting back 12 months from the new quarter:
December quarter
Student dropped
September quarter
Student counted as dropped again
June quarter
Student counted as dropped again
March quarter
Student counted as dropped again
The trailing 12-month gross dropped number is more than the number of students in the school and that is the number they use to make the goal of re-entry students for the academic personnel (the 10% of the gross drops = 10% of a fictitious dropped student number - fathom students). I am told that the gross dropped student number in one school was approximately 490 but the program from its inception did not get more than approximately 350 students. How can you drop more students than you ever had in the program and then be asked to market and attain 10% of this fictitious number?
One student counts at least 3 quarters (3 times more). Then the representatives from the academic area must try to market to the actual drops (the real amount of dropped students, not the inflated number). There rationale behind this is that the period to attain re-entry students can go back decades of years, but the people in charge know that normally after a year or two of being out of college the student will probably not return. I believe that these unrealistic goals are trying to be made into a new marketing path to possibly circumvent the regulations of the gainful employment implementations. Additionally, if what I am told is correct, a re-entry fee is charged to the students in addition to the exorbitant tuition, which seems almost like a practice of "extortion". Just my opinion but please check it out!
I already disapprove of ITT holding the current technology back given the money charged for tuition - the computers are not the top of the line, the software is outdated, and equipment used in sub-par () opinion) - when the cost of a Bachelor degree is quickly approaching $100,000. The students should be using cutting edge equipment with the latest software. When ITT was beginning to teach Windows XP and Office Windows 7 and Office 2010 was out in the market. These students could be doctors with that price tag!
If ITT continues in this fashion, then the pressure will be off the marketing team because the academic team will be another marketing source off the radar. Off the radar because the academic marketing strategies was not mentioned as a part of the area questioned under this gainful employment regulations.
0 comments