Three's Company: For-Profit Higher Education Research, Politics, and Social Media

• In Event: The Academic, Version 2.0: The Scholar in the Era of Social Media

Abstract

The for-profit higher education sector is arguably one of the least understood and most controversial sectors of postsecondary education today. The rise of for-profit colleges and universities has pushed higher education researchers to consider more intently the impact of privatization on the postsecondary education landscape. This paper illuminates how people, the politics of representation, and social media simultaneously shape the contemporary discussion on proprietary higher education. This paper challenges the notion that the understanding of for-profit colleges can occur in isolation, and thus explores various dynamics in the era of social media.

Author

• Constance Iloh, University of Southern California