Dive Temporary:
- Lindenwood College, a nonprofit in Missouri, Thursday finalized its acquisition of Dorsey School, an 89-year-old for-profit technical establishment based mostly in Michigan. Neither establishment has publicly shared the acquisition value.
- Lindenwood’s buy permits it to develop into the profession training sector and create a better training system that may assist a extra various set of scholars, in response to an FAQ on the college’s web site. The acquisition may also diversify Lindenwood’s income streams, the non-public college stated.
- The establishments will proceed to function individually, holding their respective names and staff. Dorsey’s chief, John Barnes, will keep on as president and CEO and can report back to John Porter, president of the Lindenwood Training System. Porter may also proceed to function Lindenwood’s president.
Dive Perception:
Lindenwood’s board of trustees authorized a structural change to the Lindenwood College nonprofit company in late 2022 to permit for the acquisition of establishments that could not simply be built-in in a single establishment. The company modified its identify to the Lindenwood Training System earlier this yr.
“That is our first step within the plan to construct a community of colleges that may present life-long training resulting in profession development,” Porter stated in a campus electronic mail asserting the finished buy.
It’s anticipated Dorsey will pursue recognition by the U.S. Division of Training as a non-profit increased ed establishment inside the coming months, in response to Lindenwood.
Lindenwood grew to become occupied with buying a technical school when it heard from native college superintendents that they had been sending virtually half of their college students to profession and vocational coaching after commencement, in response to the FAQ.
Dorsey was interesting to the college as a result of it has grown throughout a time when lots of its Midwest opponents both left the world or closed. In 2021, Dorsey Colleges grew to become Dorsey School when it started providing affiliate diploma applications. The establishments are at the moment exploring enrollment pathways for Dorsey graduates who could be occupied with a Lindenwood program.
Dorsey additionally has a monitor report of stability, sturdy branding and scholar success, in response to Lindenwood.
These components appear to hold in opposition to many notable for-profit establishments which have confronted accusations of poor scholar outcomes and misleading gross sales pitches.
An analogous deal, if larger in scale — the College of Arkansas system’s potential acquisition of the College of Phoenix — has been met with pushback from Arkansas school over issues the for-profit would diminish its model. In 2019, the College of Phoenix agreed to pay $191 million, most of it in canceled scholar debt, to settle Federal Commerce Fee allegations its ads misrepresented its relationships with main employers.
