February 04, 2005

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Publication Date: Friday, February 04, 2005

High marks

As a higher education institution, the University of Phoenix has set itself apart. There are no athletics, no sororities or fraternities. No dormitories or student union buildings.

On the business side, its statistics are notable. Founded in 1976, it has 163 campus locations in 33 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, serving 230,180 students. As of Jan. 10, stock for its parent company, Apollo Group, was trading for $81.29.

Taking a business approach to education has resulted in this for-profit school pioneering a niche of catering to adult working students.

The traditional college schedule - classes offered in the morning and early afternoon - was an obstacle to going back to school, said Bessy Wentz, a Pleasanton resident and University of Phoenix student.

Nonetheless, furthering her education has long been on the mind of the Kaiser registered nurse. "I thought about it on and off for about 10 years," she said.

Although she considered other schools, Wentz ultimately chose University of Phoenix not only for the degree, but also because its class schedules were tailored for working people.

The average University of Phoenix student is 34-35 years old and has a job, said Tim Woods, the Pleasanton campus information systems and technology chair.

Attending those daytime classes can be difficult for them, a difficulty that the university has eliminated. "They are very accommodating," said Wentz, a nurse for 22 years.

She learned about the school's working adult-oriented focus last year. "One day at a street fair in Pleasanton, they had a booth and so I stopped and talked to them. (The booth worker) encouraged me to talk to a counselor, and I realized it was a program that would work."

By June 2006, Wentz expects to earn a bachelor's degree in health administration, a degree that will complement her current management position in Kaiser's perinatal services department.

Dublin resident Marian Francisco echoed Wentz' feelings. "There were several things that got my attention about them," she said. "No. 1, it was convenient from work." She said that she commutes every day to her job with a San Jose software design firm. "It's convenient for my work schedule and for commuting."
Convenience is essential

Convenience is also a keyword among University of Phoenix campus leaders.

"Convenience, convenience, convenience. Convenience with rigor. That's what it's all about," said Stephan Steller, associate campus director at the Pleasanton center, 7901 Stoneridge Drive.

University of Phoenix is more service-oriented than a traditional school, he said, citing the school's programs.

One program called Flexnet puts students in a classroom for one night the first week, online for three weeks and back in the classroom the last week, he said.

Students typically take one class per session, which lasts from five to six weeks, Steller said. Although classes are taught during convenient evening hours, convenience does not lessen the course work demand. The condensed course can be intense.

"You can't really miss a class," Wentz said. She recalled her first class last summer. She enrolled in a class although it conflicted with a previously planned vacation. Even though she missed only one class, she constantly worried about what she was missing. "Just to go on my vacation, it was so stressful."

Convenience is also found in other areas at the school, which relies on the ease of the Internet. "Resource" is an online portal developed for students, Steller explained.

Rather than requiring a textbook, curriculum developers have taken the essential information taught in a course, compiled it into reading blocks and organized it in the online portal, he explained.

Resource is available to students through any Internet connection, whether they are at home, at work or studying in an Internet cafˇ. Live technical support is always available, Woods added, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Resource allows students to take what they need to know to do their job. "We teach the skills necessary to have you better in your job," said Steller.

In addition to Resource, the school offers a virtual library, one of the largest online, and its E-book collection. Where the library is primarily academic holdings, the E-book collection is commercial holdings, Woods explained.
Faculty members still active in their fields

Another unique aspect of the school is its faculty. The instructors are not full-time professors. The university requires all instructors to have at least a master's degree, to have worked a minimum of two years, and still to be active in their discipline.

"The biggest plus is the instructors. They are currently working in their field," Wentz said, adding, "They have so much knowledge to give."

"My expectation was the professors would be good," Marian Francisco said. "They're even better than I thought they would be."

Tim Gruber, a communications professional, has been teaching at the university for 12 years. Although he also has taught at a community college, he prefers teaching more mature adult students.

"Eighteen- and 20-year-olds' goals are different than they are here," he said. Most of the students he has met have different reasons for school, some are hoping for career advancement and others, a career change.

Worldwide, there are more than a quarter million students attending an Apollo Group school. But at the campus level, classes are small, allowing the student and instructors more opportunity for interaction. Most classes have 14 to 15 students.

Knowing students personally has given Gruber a level of satisfaction. He recalls one student in a recent class who will be the first one in her family to earn a college degree.

"It's the greatest thing in the world," Steller said, "to stand on stage and hand out diplomas." He laughed as he said that he has to remember to first shake hands for the photograph, before giving a congratulatory hug.

Steller also speaks from personal experience; he not only earned his bachelor's degree from University of Phoenix, he also earned his master's in business administration from the school.
'For-profit' not education issue

One of the notable aspects of University of Phoenix is its for-profit status, operated under the Apollo Group Inc., a Phoenix, Arizona-headquartered corporation.

Its sister subsidiaries are the Institute for Professional Development, the College for Financial Planning Institutes Corp., and Western International University Inc.

Tuition at the school for an undergraduate degree is $460 per credit hour; it is $570 for graduate students; and $645 for doctoral candidates.

The commercial aspect of the university is not an education issue, Steller said. At a campus level, its administrators balance the intrinsic value of an education with answering to stockholders by concentrating on the students, he said.

"We worry about the students and let the corporate office worry about the stockholders," Steller said.

"If you focus on doing the right thing in the classroom, everything else falls in place," technology chair Woods said, adding that he believed the university may be more accountable because it does answer to stockholders.

Stockholders expect a return on their investment, Steller added. The faculty is also more accountable to students.

"The faculty doesn't have office hours and they have accountability to the students," he said. "They have to be available when a student needs them."

Most students have instructors' home telephone numbers, he said. And administrators, such as himself, have an open-door policy for all students, he added.

A Web search pulls up University of Phoenix alumni who have gone on to high-profile positions, such as Federal Highway Administrator Mary Peters and Arizona's chief deputy treasurer, E. Blaine Vance. Other notables include the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections director, Michael Branham, and eBay's chief information security officer, Howard Schmidt.
Accreditation and partnerships

On an accreditation level, University of Phoenix is on the same ground as Northwestern University in Illinois, Indiana's Purdue University, the U.S. Air Force Academy and the University of Iowa, among others.

Like these schools, University of Phoenix has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association and has received 10-year accreditation, Steller said.

On a local level, the campus has partnered with Las Positas College to provide a seamless transition from the two-year school to the university.

Likewise, it has a partnership with nearly all schools districts in the Bay Area, including Pleasanton Unified School District, to allow those pursuing teaching degrees to student teach.

The exceptions are Oakland and San Francisco. While University of Phoenix is in the processing of obtaining an agreement with San Francisco, Oakland is not being considered because of its district problems, a school representative told a group of prospective students during a recent orientation.

In spite of a 30-year history, a common misconception of the school is that it is strictly an online school, said Steller.

The school offers a number of degree programs, including a bachelor's and master's in administration, accounting, health care and marketing as well as a master's in nursing and education and a doctorate of management in organizational leadership.

It has affiliations with the American Council on Education, Association of American Colleges and American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, among others.

While University of Phoenix does have an online school, it is also traditional in the sense that students pursuing undergraduate, master's and doctorate degrees attend classes in buildings.

The Pleasanton campus has 12 classrooms, Stellar explained. "During the day, the rooms are rented out," he said, explaining that often local companies need the classroom space to conduct in-house training.

But in the evening, the classrooms take on another look. Adults sit around tables, focused on the instructor's lesson.

Francisco, who is working toward a business degree in marketing, said one of the key elements of University of Phoenix for her was the way it teaches critical thinking. "I did go to programming school and learned technical aspects of becoming a programmer," she said. "I feel a lot, when I'm in meetings, I'm presented with a problem where I need better critical thinking skills. I feel at a disadvantage." But she said she knows she is learning this skill at University of Phoenix.

"We are very keen to have our education matter in the workplace," Steller said. "We cut right to the chase. If you make a better student, you also make a better employee."
Teaching teamwork

Working in "learning teams" is an important factor for Wentz. Part of the class curriculum includes completing a project with a learning team, she explained. "You have to work as a team," she said. "In the real world, you have to work as a team."

The team of four to five people is presented with a problem, must solve the problem and then make a presentation as a team, she said. "It mimics the real world in a way. You don't always get along with everyone but you have to find ways to get along."

For Francisco, the team experience has also been valuable. "Most are out in the workforce, in all different industries," she said. "They bring a wealth of knowledge." She recalled observing one classmate, who was an executive. "Her approach to working with employees, from a management perspective, I thought was very good. With her, she was able to pull people into the forefront and get them involved."

While the school offers education beyond textbooks, students say the classes are not easy.

"It's a lot of work," Francisco said. "It is not a breeze. It is do-able, obtainable, but don't expect to go in there and it'll fall into your lap."

She recalled one instructor's apt advice: "You don't get A's, you earn A's."

"My husband had to take over a lot of things I can't do," Wentz said, adding that he is the one cooking, cleaning and shopping for groceries nowadays. It can be difficult but is not impossible, she said. "If you can commit to it, you can do it."

University of Phoenix has set itself apart. From a commercial base, it has bit out an education niche, one that has garnered it more than a quarter of a million students. But despite its business side, its mission is still traditional.

"We are a real school," Steller said. "We play a role in the community, and we make a difference."

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