Kaplan College

Kaplan College (Kaplan University, KU) offers a variety of diplomas, certificates, bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The bulk of its online education efforts take place through the Kaplan University brand, while Kaplan College offers physical campus sites in 14 states across the US.

Kaplan College and Kaplan University are both discrete parts of Kaplan Higher Education Corporation (KHE), a division of Kaplan, Inc. All told, Kaplan serves 1 million students per year across the US and abroad (including via online programmes through Kaplan University). Customers include individuals, schools, and businesses. A subsidiary of The Washington Post Company, in 2007 Kaplan’s revenues totaled over US$2 billion.

As of August 2008, Kaplan University alone had 41,000 students enrolled (either online or face-to-face) across eight campuses or online student support centers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; and Phoenix, Arizona, US. Kaplan Higher Education serves more than 80,000 students through 70 campus-based schools across the United States and in Europe, so Kaplan University comprises 50% of its enrolments. Students may obtain degrees in accounting, nursing, business and other fields. Also under the Kaplan University umbrella is Concord [Online] Law School (launched in 1998), which merged with Kaplan in 2007.

Kaplan University’s online courses may include synchronous online sessions, asynchronous discussion boards, frequent online quizzes and 1:1 feedback from instructors. Most Kaplan programmes are taught by practicing professionals. Students are offered full library services through Kaplan’s relationship with UAH Salmon Library at the University of Alabama, US.

The Kaplan College web site is at http://getinfo.kaplancollege.com/ . The Kaplan University web site is at http://www.kaplan.edu/ .

Kaplan has busily acquired a number of small educational and training institutions in the last few years. It is now involved in a variety of non-US-based ventures.

• Kaplan International Colleges offer academic preparation programmes in partnership with a selection of UK colleges, e.g. Nottingham Trent, International College, Sheffield International College and others.
• Kaplan Professional(formerly FTC) in the UK offers finance, accounting and other courses to UK- and Asia-based students (see http://www.kaplanfinancial.co.uk/). For example, in Hong Kong, it offers Mandarin-language training to students (principally Cantonese-speaking Chinese) through Hong Kong Putonghua Vocational School (HKPVS).
• See http://www.kaplan.com/HigherEducation/InternationalPrograms/ for other examples of Kaplan’s penetration into the global education markets.

Other details

In the latter half of 2007, Kaplan’s revenue comprised almost 50% of that of the entire Washington Post Company. By revenue alone, Kaplan is the second-largest education company in the U.S.

As noted in the Washington Post Co’s annual report for 2007 (see below), Kaplan’s classroom-based schools, including those of Kaplan University, were serving more than 33,500 students at year-end 2007, with approximately 36% of such students enrolled in accredited bachelor or associate degree programmes.

The Kaplan name is also synonymous with ‘test prep’ or examination preparation in the US, offering courses to aid students in succeeding on important standardised exams such as SATS, LSATs, etc. See http://www.kaptest.com/ for more information.

Reports

The Washington Post Company’s 2007 Annual Report, at http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/62/624/62487/items/285032/WPO2007AR.pdf, focusses primarily on Kaplan Inc. and offers a great deal of information about Kaplan University.

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