Big news on the Laureate front

Laureate International Universities just announced it has a new Honorary Chancellor – none other than William J Clinton, 42^nd President of the United States!  According to the press release:

 As Honorary Chancellor, President Clinton will advise this group of universities in areas such as social responsibility, youth leadership and increasing access to higher education.  He will also encourage civic engagement and youth leadership on important social issues during his appearances at university campuses and in print and online messages to the nearly 600,000 students in the Laureate network.

“Last year I had the opportunity to visit Laureate’s universities in Spain, Brazil and Peru to speak to students, faculty, and the communities that they serve,” said President Clinton. “These private universities exemplify the same principles of innovation and social responsibility in education that we worked to advance during my Presidency and now through my Foundation, and I am pleased to support their mission to expand access to higher education, particularly in the developing world.”

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post (Laureate keeps building a global brand) about Laureate’s building of a high-quality global brand.  In addition to focusing on ever-increasing educational quality in their system, they have long recognized the importance of working with groups such as the World Bank to increase access to education, and in participating at international higher education meetings.  The appointment of President Clinton as Honorary Chancellor will help greatly to increase their visibility and brand globally.

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 On another front, Laureate announced last week another acquisition in the US – the WASC accredited National Hispanic University in San Jose, CA. According to the press release:

With its focus on educating the growing and underserved Hispanic population in the United States, NHU complements Laureate International Universities' mission of providing broad access to higher education.

According to the Mercury News:

A new, nonprofit foundation made up of the current trustees will own the property and continue to run the college's charter high school on campus. Laureate will operate the university and pay unspecified rent to the foundation. In addition, the foundation will have three seats on a new NHU board set up by Laureate.

The Mercury News also reports that Laureate hopes to add up to 8000 online students within 5 years, and possibly open other campuses of NHU around the country.  Again, according to the Mercury News, Paula Singer, the President and CEO of the Laureate Higher Education Group:

said NHU offered Laureate an opportunity to tap into a large pool of Hispanic youths who can't afford traditional, campus-based education or don't have time because they work.

It will be interesting to see how Laureate succeeds in expanding educational opportunities to this group without running into the high student debt problems that many other for-profit, online programs have encountered. 

Comments

[zhang]

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[Mort Dunder]

Greetings

As a student enrolled in one of the Laureate International Universities, I applaud such a bold move in appointing President Clinton as Honorary Chancellor. The President certainly brings his passion for education and social responsibility along with his "brand equity" to Laureate.
Yet, I must consider the reflective "opposing view" to this appointment. As a teacher in higher education, I try my best to inspire but not conspire my students to be politically aware and socially responsible. That said, I wonder about what the "political push back" regarding this type of appointment. I certainly would appreciate any insights regarding this query.

Lloyd replies: Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Laureate is, of course, a global university. Few individuals have the positive name recognition globally that Clinton has - his reputation outside the US seems much less mixed than his reputation at home. As an ex-president of the US, he signifies to this very large global audience that Laureate is a serious, credible institution. So for Laureate's global audience, I think this was a masterstroke. Within the US politics is never far from Bill Clinton, so Laureate may attract some unwanted attention from some domestic sources with this appointment. However, even in the US, this serves to distinguish Laureate from the general run of for-profit higher ed institutions.