As the coronavirus has shut college campuses and forced them to provide online instruction, several of the country’s largest for-profit colleges are looking to boost enrollments and targeting unemployed workers who may be thinking of going back to school, reported the Associated Press.
Many of these for-profits have increased advertising and are offering discounts for online classes. Some college chains are offering scholarships for students whose finances have been affected by COVID-19 and for those seeking careers in high demand fields like nursing and teaching.
“Hundreds of thousands of students are either going to be concerned about their health, or they’re literally not going to be able to go back to their dorms,” said Karl McDonnell, CEO of Strategic Education Inc., to AP. His company owns the for-profit Capella University and Strayer University. “We expect that demand, broadly, is going to dramatically increase as a result of this,” said McDonnell.
Meanwhile, Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday called on Senate leaders to ensure that for profit-colleges do not receive any more coronavirus stimulus aid in further rounds of relief legislation, reported Politico.
Last month, Congress allotted more than $1 billion to for-profit colleges as part of a $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, reported the Associated Press.
