The Phoenix Of University, attained a peak enrollment of almost 600,000 students in 2010, but its numbers have declined to 227,000 as of 2015.
The enrollment drop (and more than 100 campus closings) have been attributed to operational changes amid criticism of high debt loads and low job prospects for university students.University of Phoenix has also gained greater scrutiny and criticism by the US government, investigative reporters, and US popular culture humorists
In 1994, University of Phoenix leaders made the decision to take the parent company, Apollo Group public. Capital from Wall Street launched the school. Phoenix had more than 100,000 students within the first five years of going public. Growth in the company made John Sperling a billionaire.
While the school specializes in online programs, the campuses offer additional programs and services.Students have access to class-specific online resources, which include an electronic library, textbooks, and other ancillary material required for a course. The university says that the electronic textbooks include search features & hyperlinks to glossary terms that make the books easier to use for research
Students spend 20 to 24 hours with an instructor during each course, compared with about 40 hours at a traditional university. The university also requires students to collaborate by working on learning team projects, wherein the class will be divided into learning teams of four to five students. Each learning team is assigned a team forum where team members will discuss the project & submit their agreed upon portions of the learning team assignment for compilation by the nominated learning team leader. The concept of learning teams is somewhat uncommon in traditional academia; however, the University of Phoenix believes that collaborating on projects and having individuals rely on each other reflects the real working conditions of the corporate world.
Some individual colleges within the University of Phoenix hold specialty accreditation or are pre-accredited by accrediting agencies that are recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
School of Business – accreditation through the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). Because Phoenix's business programs are not accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB),
some companies will not provide tuition reimbursement for employees attending Phoenix. College of Education – Master of Education is accredited by the Teacher Education Accreditation Council, College of Nursing – B.S. and M.S. degree programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE)
