Barring some major changes in academia, we will have to consider the role that for-profit universities (both on-line and in "brick and mortar" versions) will play in the future.
While there have been major conversations in places like the Chronicle and the NY Times about the role that for-profits will play in student's education and outcomes, I wonder more about the role it will play amongst faculty and our corner of the academy.
I work as an adjunct for a for-profit university, and when I've attended conferences or colloquia with my school's name on my badge, sometimes I get the rolled eye look or the cold shoulder. I think this is because, in the past, people who exclusively taught at for-profit schools were generally less qualified as academics than the rest of the professoriate.
However, I think that is bound to change. As more people gain PhDs in the Humanities and Social Sciences from top tier Research I institutions and cannot find work, they will be more inclined to take for-profit work as their primary employment, and those institutions I think would want to have them to help shore up some of the negative press they have gotten in the past.
On the other hand, working for a for-profit university has its own problems that academics might balk at. The only thing more bureaucratic than a public university (besides the government) is a for-profit university. Many, though not all, professors will chafe at the more business-like structure. In a profit-seeking model, research is largely ignored (although I have watched that attitude thaw at my own institution), and there might be more control over teaching methods
So, what do you all think? Will academics embrace the opportunities that for-profit teaching might hold? Or will they want to remain embedded in the current system?
A few more recent articles on For-Profits
http://chronicle.com/article/Changeeduthe-Problem/130596/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/us/politics/mitt-romney-offers-praise-for-a-donors-business.html?pagewanted=all
