From New York to Nicosia

Well, yes, we have finally done it. We have gone and bought a $3M Super Bowl ad for Global Learning Semesters, to promote our programs to 90M people, along with Coca-Cola, Doritos, E-Trade, Budweiser and Ford.

Screenshot from Global Learning Semesters Super Bowl Ad

Well, not exactly, but our Paris program did appear in first seven seconds of the Google Super Bowl ad in the third quarter of the Super Bowl.

You can watch the ad on YouTube.

Needless to say, this was one of the biggest surprises of my life and, of course, a wonderful message for the field of study abroad.

Thanks Google! (and congratulations to the other study abroad firms and websites that also appeared).

These are some interviews of our study abroad students at Global Learning Semesters. This is part 1 of 2; look for the next piece next week…

And let us know if you are thinking about going to study abroad!

Apollo, the parent company of the University of Phoenix, has made a relatively senior hire to head up their international efforts.

Though Apollo has a presence in Mexico and has dabbled in the Netherlands, for the most part it has left Doug Becker and Laureate free to roam the world building a massive university network.

Kaplan (part of the Washington Post) is the only other firm to have made some meaningful efforts internationally. Devry owns Ross down in the Caribbean but overall neither firm comes close to matching Laureate’s international focus.

I think what has happened is that the US higher education market (adult and online) was so good for so long for the major firms that they did not feel much urgency to go international where capital investment costs are higher and private universities still tend to cater to traditional, campus-based 18-24 year students.

Astute observers will remember that Laureate is in the process of being taken private by KKR, SAC and others.

A Wall Street analyst who is a well-known commentator of the for-profit higher-education industry has jumped ship to work for one of the companies he has long been following for clients, the Apollo Group Inc.

Apollo, which is the parent company of the University of Phoenix, announced that effective today, Gregory Cappelli, an analyst with Credit Suisse, will become executive vice president for global strategy, and an assistant to John G. Sperling, the company’s founder and executive chairman.

Full but short post is on the Chronicle of Higher Education Blog.

“Americans will spend $750 million on self-help books this year and more than $1 billion on motivational speakers.”

cnn.com

my initial reaction is to say, “wow, that is a lot”, but is 0.02% of US GDP in the attempt to improve a ridiculous figure?
if it was viewed as subset training and adult education, it would seem perfectly normal…

We are very excited about this, particularly the capacity-building component….I will elaborate in further posts…

THE HISPANIC ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (HACU) AND GLOBAL LEARNING SEMESTERS FORM THE HISPANIC GLOBAL ALLIANCE TO REDUCE THE GAP IN HISPANIC STUDY ABROAD BY 50%

• Over $8M in scholarships available for HACU study abroad students
• Capacity Building Initiatives for HACU member institutions
• Joint study abroad program development

SAN ANTONIO — October 28, 2006 — HACU (the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities) and Global Learning Semesters, Inc. are undertaking a 10 year partnership to address the factors hindering Hispanic study abroad with the goal of reducing the gap in Hispanic participation in study abroad by 50%. Hispanic students study abroad at about half the rate of all college students due to issues related to actual and perceived affordability, limited awareness and home institution capabilities.

This multi-faceted partnership draws upon the deep expertise of HACU in Hispanic higher education and Global Learning Semesters in study abroad administration to address the root causes of the gap in study abroad participation.

1. Financial Support: Global Learning Semesters has committed to making available over $8 million in scholarships during the next 10 years to HACU students through the Hispanic Study Abroad Scholars program and to working with HACU on Special Initiatives to further increase available scholarship funds. The University of Alcala in Spain has generously agreed to be the first Special Initiative partner.

2. Capacity Building: Global Learning Semesters is making its expertise in study abroad office administration available to HACU member institutions through training seminars and free use of its patent-pending software for study abroad office administration. This capacity building initiative will make it more affordable and feasible for HACU schools to administer a best practice study abroad office.

3. Program Development: HACU and Global Learning Semesters have formed an Advisory Council to guide the development of Global Learning Semesters’s study abroad programs in Latin America focused on issues important to Hispanic students

(more…)

At macro level, this is just the result of increasing funding gaps for state and small private institutions.

One student loan company has invited college and university officials, and their spouses, to attend an education conference — in the Caribbean this February, all expenses paid. Another pays universities bonuses based on how much their students borrow. Others gave away gifts like iPods at a recent conference for financial aid administrators.

With rising tuition and lagging government aid making private student loans a big and increasingly competitive business, these are some of the ways lenders are courting universities in hopes that they will steer students their way.

Students took out nearly $13.8 billion in private loans in 2004-5, more than 10 times the amount borrowed a decade ago, according to the College Board.

The key to this business is university financial aid offices, which compile lists of “preferred” lenders, sometimes as few as two. Students rarely comparison shop and rely on those lists.

Financial aid administrators say they pick lenders with the most competitive terms, not the most appealing giveaways. But some have questioned such arrangements — and whether students are getting the best deals.

NY Times Article (free reg required)

At a micro-level, GLS faces the same issue. We list a certain study abroad loan provider on our site for no particular reason except we found them first. We certainly do not get give-aways at our size (!) But, given this, makes me wonder if we should look for some additional options to list on our site.

Student lending overall is a pretty decent sized business (study abroad just a sub niche) with a good deal of M&A the last couple of years…

The most innovative firm in the space is:

My Rich Uncle

They took some heat early for their “equity” based lending model (e.g. you them back with a percentage of your future earnings). I doubt that is actually enforceable (13th Amendment), but who knows

1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

In any case, they have come back to more traditional debt instruments and seem to be gaining traction.

Their PrePrime product they just launched is really interesting. Trying to use non-traditional criteria (e.g SAT scores, etc) to underwrite students with a limited credit history. Risky, but if they get it right and own the formula and have a few years lead on everyone else with underwriting data, that is a great product that they could grow or license or sell to one of the big guys.

Needless to say, every incumbent should launch a pilot of something similar since they are in a much better position given their volume to test such a thing and can take the risk, but they won’t because that is how incumbents act. They will sit and let someone else finally prove the model and then pay through the nose to buy it.