Lessons from the Edge: For-Profit and Nontraditional Higher Education in America (review)

In the midst of the continuous flow of bad press, anecdotal evidence, and cautious speculation on the future of for-profit higher education, comes Lessons from the Edge, a carefully put-together volume by Gary A. Berg. The book grew out of a project, the Study of Good Work in Higher Education, that investigated leadership in rapidly changing social and market environments. As an administrator, Berg is eager to identify and analyze the cultural and organizational structures of alternative higher education. As a citizen, he seeks the truths behind the social underpinnings of nontraditional and for-profit institutions.

Acknowledging the wide-ranging confusion of the public and professionals on the differences among for-profit, nontraditional, and traditional institutions, Berg defines the subject of interest as "an institution of higher learning that in mission, teaching method, or administrative and governance structures operates outside of the norm." Are these institutions changing the higher-education landscape, and should they be? How does the analysis of nontraditional providers of higher education inform our evaluation of challenges encountered by traditional institutions? These questions are among a few of the important issues addressed in the book.

While the scope of the volume is quite impressive, limitations are inevitable. Conceived as a piece on the University of Phoenix, the book features qualitative research which reflects extensively on the University of Phoenix mission, its structure and leadership, its culture and challenges. This information is occasionally supplemented by observations drawn from for-profit institutions, DeVry and Argosy universities, and nontraditional schools Heritage College and Fielding Graduate Institute. Berg himself asserts that very few for-profit schools are comparable to the University of Phoenix. Besides its regionally accredited stature, this institution has resources and values that are not necessarily representative of the proprietary sector at large. The readers, then, should be careful to interpret the author's discussions accordingly.

The book makes for a very well-structured and spirited piece of reading. Evoking an image of remote young U.S. western settlements, with desert-land citizens at the mercy of self-made opportunities, Berg sets the mood of the discussion in the preface: Nontraditional providers fulfill an important social and economic role, and it is the time for the education profession and the public to acknowledge and investigate this role.

In Chapters 1 and 2, the author supplies motivation for his topic by surveying challenges in higher education as they apply to traditional providers. Chapter 3 profiles the nontraditional schools researched and outlines common concerns related to for-profit higher education providers. Chapter 4 looks closely at the social agenda and the missions pursued by for-profits and nontraditional institutions. In contrast to the stereotypical negative expectations, Berg discovers a strong sociopolitical purpose to for-profits' mission. Along with serving corporate clients, these institutions seek to identify social needs as well, providing access to first-generation college students who are underserved by traditional providers.

To better understand the differences between traditional and nontraditional schools, the author investigates the culture of these institutions in Chapter 5. "An interesting mix of corporate and informal" (p. 105) culture in for-profits appears in quotations from Berg's interviews with their employees, whose earnest accounts stimulate the reader's interest. Chapter 6 examines the management structures of for-profit institutions, Chapter 7 describes the mechanics of decisionmaking, and Chapter 8 analyzes the role of the faculty. While Berg identifies the faculty as "the weakest link at the for-profits" (p. 160), he believes that the traditional institutions have much to learn from their nontraditional counterparts in "training, recruiting and effectively utilizing part-time faculty" (p. 160). The book concludes with Chapter 9, which dwells on challenges faced by for-profit schools, and Chapter 10, which provides an effective summary of the volume.

The excellent organizational format of the book deserves special mention. Each chapter is well situated and is broken down into smaller, cohesive topics. The discussion is...