"In Higher Ed, Inc., Ruch opens up the discussion about for-profit higher education from the perspective of a participant-observer.

Focusing on five providers - the Apollo Group (the University of Phoenix); Argosy Education Group (the American Schools of Professional Psychology); DeVry, Inc. (DeVry Institutes of Technology); Education Management Corporation (the Art Institutes International); and Strayer Education (Strayer University) - he conveys for the first time what it feels like to be inside this new kind of American institution. He is also candid about the less attractive aspects of the for-profit colleges, including what those who enroll may give up.

As Ruch makes clear, the major for-profit colleges and universities offer a different approach to higher education - one that may be increasingly influential in the future."--BOOK JACKET.