Their qualifications are legally equivalent to those issued by the public universities, but there have been concerns raised by external audits about the quality assurance and standards in for-profit colleges.
Partnerships between for-profit "pathway" colleges and public universities have also proven effective in recruiting overseas students.
The first major category of for-profit schools is post-secondary institutions, which operate as businesses, receiving fees from each student they enroll.
[6] While supporters of EMOs argue that the profit motive encourages efficiency, this arrangement has also drawn controversy and criticism.
[7] Kevin Carey of the New America Foundation said in a 2010 column in The Chronicle of Higher Education that "For-profits exist in large part to fix educational market failures left by traditional institutions, and they profit by serving students that public and private nonprofit institutions too often ignore."