Predatory Inclusion

First experience with the concept

CGHE (2023)

Online higher education may meet Charron-Chénier’s (2020) four components of predatory inclusion. First, predatory inclusion depends on “exclusionary practices” that have restricted access to a good or service (pg. 372)—conditions that have characterized four-year postsecondary education in the US (Wooten 2015). Second, an alternative provider enters the market and offers “a close substitute,” framed as “expanding access to a valuable opportunity” (pg. 372). For-profit colleges qualify as alternative providers and have utilized this framing (Cottom 2017). The same is true of OPMs (Author 2022). Third, alternative providers target marginalized groups either directly or through de facto methods such as geographic targeting. Contracts between OPMs and public universities include evidence of both (Author 2022).

References

CGHE. (n.d.). Promising or Predatory? Online Education in Non-Profit and For-Profit Universities. CGHE. Retrieved March 9, 2023, from https://researchcghe.org/publications/working-paper/promising-or-predatory-online-education-in-non-profit-and-for-profit-universities/