For-profit colleges

Private investments in higher education were up substantially in 2004.

Salem International University, a private institution in West Virginia, is negotiating to be sold to an investment group.

As "60 Minutes" prepares to broadcast a potentially damaging report on for-profit colleges, the Career College Association has begun a public relations campaign aimed at dealing with "any fallout here in Washington or elsewhere," the group's president said in an e-mail to its members last week.

As enrollments at American colleges continue to soar, vaulting past the 17 million mark in fall 2002, students grow ever more likely to be black or Hispanic and female and to attend community colleges or for-profit institutions, according to the latest statistics from the U.S. Education Department.

A new for-profit player -- Whitney International U. -- has ambitions to operate all over the world, and to offer teacher education in the U.S.

Education Department imposes no fines or penalties after investigation into wrongdoing at Bryman College campus in San Jose.

Grand Canyon University dismisses 17 professors -- including 5 with tenure -- drawing scrutiny from AAUP and an accreditor.

DeVry University cut back faculty positions last week in a continuing effort to bolster profits amid decreasing enrollment.

The for-profit institution said Wednesday that it had eliminated the jobs of 134 faculty members, both full-time and part-time. DeVry had already carried out two voluntary buyout programs earlier in the fiscal year. This most recent reduction, in which 29 faculty members voluntarily took a buyout, followed an evaluation of DeVry’s “campus-based instructional needs.”

Once you've done real estate, casinos, an airline, and reality television, what's left? For Donald Trump, there's always higher education.

On Monday Trump unveiled his own "university," which will sell CD-ROMs and offer online courses in real estate and business. No credit or degrees will be offered, although baseball caps and shirts with the university logo may be purchased ($21.95 for a cap, $39.95 for a golf shirt).

For-profit venture seeks to offer a new model, involving close ties to school districts and a curriculum based on the latest research.