With purchase of edX, online higher ed company 2U bets big on power of a brand - The Washington Post

peter.suber's bookmarks 2021-11-26

Summary:

"The pandemic that shuttered campuses worldwide last year also created a rare opportunity for online higher education. And a company based in Maryland just placed an $800 million bet that it can seize the moment.

 

For that sum, 2U Inc. bought an online course platform called edX that was created nine years ago as a nonprofit and joint venture of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The platform has a brand with prestigious origins and more than 40 million registered users around the world....

The company’s track record is not without controversy. The Wall Street Journal reported this month that an online master’s program in social work at the University of Southern California — for which 2U recruits students — had left many graduates with high student loan debt compared to their earnings. The degree had been priced at $115,000....

Some in academia believe Harvard and MIT should have held on to edX as a high-profile nonprofit venture in the growing online world. “Their decision to fold is a major, and potentially fateful, act of betrayal,” Jefferson Pooley, a professor of media and communication at Muhlenberg College, wrote in July in the Chronicle of Higher Education....

Net proceeds from the sale have gone to a new nonprofit organization under MIT and Harvard that will explore education innovation....

Anant Agarwal, an MIT professor who was chief executive of edX, has joined 2U as chief open education officer. He said edX’s university partners support the merger. “Not a single partner has opted out because of the deal,” he said...."

 

Link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/11/26/2u-finishes-deal-to-buy-edx/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » peter.suber's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.new oa.edx oa.2u oa.education oa.mit oa.harvard.u hu.oa oa.courseware

Date tagged:

11/26/2021, 16:05

Date published:

11/26/2021, 11:05