Dive Brief:
- Education technology company 2U is growing its higher education presence with contracts with two more institutions and an extension of its contract with the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, its first partner.
- Campus Technology reports that 2U will help Syracuse University launch an online master of public administration and deliver two certificate programs for the University of North Carolina’s business school, while extending its contract with USC through 2030.
- 2U offers its technology, course development services, recruitment, student support, and financial buy-in, making money off of a cut of future revenue from the online programs — but it will take a smaller share of that revenue from USC under the revised contract, which also allows the company to pursue contracts with other schools of education in other states.
Dive Insight:
2U went public in 2014 and has been slowly gaining in profitability since. Its business model has been to play the long-game, carefully adding higher education partners only as fast as it could while maintaining quality.
Besides the three programs mentioned with new initiatives, 2U has tried to help Yale take a physician’s assistant program online. The proposal was rejected by Yale’s accreditor last spring. According to the Yale Daily News, administrators reapplied and expect to hear back about the decision in September 2017. Current and former students have opposed the online option for the physician’s assistant program because they say it would undercut the professionalism of the field.