Business guru turned opportunist ‘educator’ or a whole new approach to the “I’m a celebrity and this is my brand” game – what do you think? Would you be willing to pay take online classes from the Jack Welch Institute (and no, he won’t be teaching them himself.)
What I really want to know is when is Jay-Z going to be invited to guest lecture?
From today’s Wall Street Journal:
Former General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jack Welch is putting his name and money behind a little-known educational entrepreneur, injecting some star power into the budding industry of online education.
Mr. Welch is paying more than $2 million for a 12% stake in Chancellor University System LLC, which is converting formerly bankrupt Myers University in Cleveland into Chancellor University. It plans to offer most courses online. Chancellor will name its Master of Business Administration program The Jack Welch Institute.
Mr. Welch’s name may help add allure to for-profit, online education, which is growing rapidly despite nagging questions about quality.
Boston research firm EduVentures Inc. estimates that 11% of the roughly 18.5 million U.S. college students took most of their classes online in the fall of 2008, up from 1% a decade ago.
Online higher education will generate revenue of $11.5 billion this year, EduVentures says. But “there is a concern about quality,” says EduVentures Chief Executive Tom Dretler, because there’s “much, much less selectivity” of students in the admissions process.
Mr. Clifford and Mr. Welch say they want Chancellor’s MBA program to be high quality and have met with several Ivy League professors, but declined to disclose names.
Born Curious 
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