Public/private partnerships: a Trojan horse for higher education?

Baines, Lawrence; Chiarelott, Leigh

doi:10.1007/s12528-010-9035-2

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

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“…OPM firm's employees act and serve as if they were internal members of the institution without necessarily having the defined safeguards and training required of actual employees. 32 See Baines and Chiarelott (2010) and Springer (2018) for case studies about the loss of academic decisions and control through day-to-day operations.…”

Section: Consumer Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the OPM: Form, Function, and Policy Implications

Cheslock¹,

Kinser²,

Zipf³

2021

Preprint

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Online program management (OPM) is the merging of online education and outsourcing practices in higher education. OPM firms facilitate the development, delivery, and management of online programs for colleges and universities. Although OPM partnerships can help institutions offer online programs they otherwise would not be able to offer, such agreements raise concerns not seen with other types of outsourcing. To help others understand the phenomenon of online program management, we pulled together fragmented information from previous studies and literature, national datasets, websites, policies and regulations, and interviews with experts. Because previous writings use a range of definitions for the term OPM, we start by providing a working definition of an OPM agreement. Each side of the agreement is then examined in turn. For colleges and universities, we consider the reasons why they choose (or do not choose) to enter into an OPM partnership. Special attention is paid to reasons pertaining to organizational finances and nonprofit conversions. For OPM firms, we provide details about the organizations that participate in this rapidly changing market. Last, we offer policy perspectives while noting possible modifications of current regulations and providing caution about unintentional consequences of over-regulation.

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Section: Consumer Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%