Kaplan University

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Company Project Report |

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December 1, 2010 |

Table of Contents

Section 1: Industry/ Market Analysis

1.1: History of Kaplan University

1.2: Eight Forces Analysis

1.3: Strategic Group Maps

1.4: Financial Analysis

Figure 1: Industry

Figure 2: Return on Equity

Figure 3: Comparison of Cumulative Five Year Total Return

Figure 4: Management Effectiveness

Figure 5: Efficiency

Figure 6: Financial Strengths

Figure 7: Financials

Section 2: Company Strengths and Weaknesses (SWOT) Analysis

Figure 8: SWOT

2.1: Strengths

2.2: Weaknesses

Section 3: Company Strategy

Section 4: Strategy Implementation

Section 5: Recommendations and Conclusions

Section 1: Industry/Market Analysis

For-profit secondary education is a growing market in America. This sector is continuing to grow every year. Most for-profit education institutions offer alternatives to traditional schools. These include online solutions, certificate programs, smaller classes, and shortened degree paths. One other major difference is the accreditation offered by the schools. They are not as widely accepted in the industry as a degree from a traditional institution. The main issue surrounding this is the default rate among student loans. The default rate for a regular four year university is about 20%. A for-profit institutions default rate is between 5 and 65 percent. This is creating a controversy in the educational system. Graduation rates “for the first time, full-time candidates for four-year degrees at for-profit colleges is 22 percent, compared with 55 percent at state colleges and 65 percent at private nonprofit universities” (Hechinger). Lately, the government has launched an investigation into this industry. There have been many law suits over the years involving false advertisement, fraud, and lack of...