Higher Education, Publishing Houses, and Partnerships: Addressing the Needs of Nontraditional Students

• In Event: Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Philosophy and the Future of Higher Education

Abstract

This paper examines the emerging phenomenon of partnerships between post-secondary institutions and publishing houses to provide online-degree programs that utilize faculty to develop and teach courses and are aimed non-traditional students such as the military and part-timers. Such partnerships may allow for cheaper, quicker online programs aimed at non-traditional students.
This paper explores the rationale, benefits and transparency of these partnerships. Each party enters into a partnership expecting to gain some type of benefit. Symbiotic organizational relationships are a theoretical lens that explores whether partnerships are mutually or unequal, but often beneficial interactions between organizations and may include levels of resistance (Author, 2012). Such partnerships may establish monopolistic contracts, reducing choice and forcing specific resources onto students and faculty.

Author

• Angus Shiva Mungal, The University of Texas - El Paso