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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

In a world where prestigious private schools are amassing huge endowments, I think the "for profit" versus "private" distinction is a thin one. For profit schools fail not because of their corporate structure, but because their lack of prestige and reputation limits them to catering mainly to a student body that is marginal to begin with.

If Harvard, Stanford, etc., converted to corporations and started paying dividends out of its giant endowment, I doubt the best students would suddenly start turning down their offers.

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There is a huge distinction -- endowments provide stability to non-profit universities and ensure that they will be able to benefit future generations, not to provide value to shareholders.

Endowments also usually come from alumni donations. So their business model is essentially to recoup money from students long after they've graduated and become successful.

That incentive, at least, is correctly aligned. They can't bring in large alumni donations if they don't turn out well-educated successful students.

I fail to see how comparing a top 5 university in the world with regular education.

This is talking about ALL ages. "Knowledge Universe businesses included early-childhood learning centers, for-profit K–12 schools, online M.B.A. programs, IT-training services for working professionals, and more."

With investment being made with these ideas a $500 Billion dollar industry, "In 2012, the media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein established the Amplify division within News Corp. At the time of his initial investment, Murdoch described K–12 education as “a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed.” " They sold after losing a billion dollars to Steve Job's widow.

If private schools converted to corporations they would not have multi-billion dollar endowments available to fund all of the things they do that make them so prestigious. That money would have to be returned to shareholders as profit.

Why? Private corporations can do whatever they want...

Harvard Corporation's charter[0] contains some restrictions, but yes, it can attempt pretty much whatever it wants.

[0] http://library.harvard.edu/university-archives/using-the-col...

Isn't Harvard a nonprofit?

Parenthetical remark: Harvard is already a corporation, in fact, America's first. "The net result of that research is the conclusion that the Corporation of Harvard College is indeed America’s first corporation". See https://www.buybooksontheweb.com/peek.aspx?id=4221

No its because the quality of education is complete shit and for-profit education is focused on churning out as many diplomas as possible.

The endowments were created by the cumulative donations of alumni, largely with the intention of keeping monetary influence out of the university. If you remove that connection, you'll eventually kill the goose that laid the golden eggs, as a for-profit institution inevitably embraces the values of the agora rather than the acadame.

In other words, people gave money because they felt these universities can educate more freely when money isn't a factor. When they no longer feel that way, there will be no more donations.

> 'If Harvard, Stanford, etc., converted to corporations'...

let's acknowledge that this is a completely absurd notion.

but for fun, let's say it did happen: this would be the end of harvard's good reputation, i guarantee it.

- faculty protests

- widespread shut-the-campus-down student protests, no doubt

- alumni uproar like no other

- kiss donations goodbye -- nobody ever donated a million dollars to Univ of Phoenix or General Assembly...

- research funding elibility in limbo at the very least

- research coming out of the institution would no longer be taken seriously (i sure wouldn't)

- etc

i would never send my children to a for-profit institute that, by definition, did not have interests aligned with my family's or society's, and i'm sure many others wouldn't either. it is not about reputation. i would rather they go to the tiniest po-dunk state college than attend a for-profit of any kind.

I do wonder if a decent for-profit university is possible.

I think it's possible to provide an excellent education and make a profit while doing so. (After all, is that not what a tutor does?) But it would need to be done very carefully - the education arm would have to be separate from the corporate in order to ensure integrity. You'd also need a board that was committed to profiting from selling a quality education, rather than maximizing profits. Unfortunately, I think that's where this idea falls apart.

Right away? No. But eventually, that profit motive would destroy those schools.

Converted? Dividends are already paid from endowments in the form of grants to studying students.

That would still be a conversion because Harvard is not currently owned by its students.

Maybe you should read the Harvard Corporation's charter?

http://library.harvard.edu/university-archives/using-the-col...

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