BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – While some critics continue to denigrate
online universities, students, particularly those with families and
fulltime jobs, continue to enroll in record numbers. Now well known
former General Electric Co. chief executive Jack Welch has endorsed
online education by lending his name and investing his money in
Cleveland based Chancellor University. The university is naming its MBA
program the Jack Welch Management Institute.

Jack Welch’s participation in Chancellor University www.myers.edu
is an endorsement of the entire online segment of higher education says
Don Kassner, president of wholly online Andrew Jackson University www.aju.edu
. “Mr. Welch is a highly regarded and very experienced businessman and
I wouldn’t think he would lend his name to a venture lacking in
credibility or quality,” stated Kassner. “His participation in
for-profit higher education, especially the online sector, is welcome
news to online institutions like Andrew Jackson University,” Kassner
continued.

According to EduVentures, an industry research
organization, online higher education is expected to generate $11.5
billion in revenue this year. Ten years ago only 1% of college students
took most of their courses online, but that figure rose to 11% in 2008
despite concerns about academic quality voiced by some traditionalists.
When pressed to explain their negativism, the doubters point to the
open admissions policy of most online institutions. Asked whether this
point was valid, Andrew Jackson University’s Kassner responded that it
was the role of his university, and others like it, to bring high
quality education to as many serious students as possible, not to send
them away in order to preserve an elitist aura.

Research compiled
by University Consultants LLC, a Boca Raton based advisory firm,
indicates that working adults, regardless of their previous performance
in college, make better online students than the typical 18-21 year old
traditional college student. “The reason they make better students,”
says University Consultants’ founder Joseph Schmoke, “is that these
working adults are attending college to improve their chances for
advancement, higher pay and job security. They are not in college for
the social aspects. They are very serious about gaining specific
knowledge and earning a degree or advanced degree. So why penalize
these individuals by telling them their high school or previous college
grades from ten or fifteen years ago aren’t good enough to qualify them
for admission?”

Andrew Jackson University’s Kassner agreed with
Schmoke and further stated, “Our university serves the working adult
who wants rigorous coursework, relevant input from faculty with real
world experience, at the lowest costs possible. We know our students
are serious. We are too, and we don’t discriminate because someone had
less than stellar grades a decade or so ago.”

www.myers.edu