I’ve got a piece in today’s Inside Higher Ed explaining why I don’t think Starbucks’s partnership with Arizona State University Online will result in a large number of degree completions. Starbucks is getting a lot of great PR for this program, some of which is deserved for making an opportunity available and for working with Inside Track to provide additional counseling to students. However, the conditions set forth in the announcement (extremely delayed reimbursement, the last-dollar nature of the program, and only one participating online institution) makes it unlikely that the takeup rate will be very high.
Read the piece and let me know what you think!
Robert Kelchen 