National Hispanic University in East San Jose sold to giant, for-profit chain of colleges
One of the world's largest owners of for-profit colleges has bought East San Jose's National Hispanic University, throwing the idealistic but struggling campus into the growing and controversial world of corporate education.
Laureate Education is expected to announce the purchase today from its headquarters in Baltimore. The company, valued at $3.5 billion, owns more than 50 accredited colleges with about 500,000 students around the world.
"At first my thoughts were negative," said Michael Mooney, a professor at the Story Road school that's graduated hundreds of low-income students and hoped to become the nation's preeminent Latino university. "We were selling our soul."
But after researching Laureate online, he and others pronounced themselves satisfied and even optimistic about the company's plans.
Although Laureate is a major player in for-profit education, the vast majority of its students study on campuses unfamiliar to Americans. They range from Les Roches International School of Hotel Management in Switzerland to Kendall College, a culinary school in Chicago. Its few online schools include Walden University in Minnesota, with more than 40,000 students.
By comparison, NHU currently enrolls about 600 students on a budget of $7 million. Laureate plans to add up to 8,000 students online within five years. Beyond that, it may open sister campuses across the country.
While Laureate doesn't reveal how much it pays for
colleges, NHU officials described the deal as unusually favorable because they will retain ownership of the physical campus and have a say in the college's future.