Pushing Public Higher Ed Boundaries - Rick Seltzer, Inside HIgher Ed

Purdue’s deal for Kaplan U trades a long-term business relationship for low up-front costs while raising worries -- especially among faculty groups -- about blurred lines between public and private higher ed. Purdue plans for the university it is acquiring from Kaplan to use no state appropriations and instead draw its operating funding from tuition and fund-raising. It has also been exempted from state open-records laws. Purdue’s president, Mitch Daniels, cast the acquisition as a pivot to the future during an interview with Inside Higher Ed last week. “I don’t know where online is going, but I want this university, when I’m long gone, to be a leader, to be prepared at least to compete,” said Daniels, a Republican former governor of Indiana. “We were not going to be there under the status quo today.” https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/04/purdues-deal-kaplan-packs-low-front-costs-long-terms-and-boundary-pushing-details