Even in lean times, the $400 billion business of higher education is booming. Nowhere is this more true than in one of the fastest-growing – and most controversial – sectors of the industry: for-profit colleges and universities that cater to non-traditional students, often confer degrees over the Internet, and, along the way, successfully capture billions of federal financial aid dollars.

Through interviews with school executives, government officials, admissions counselors, former students and industry observers, the film explores the tension between the industry – which says it's helping an underserved student population obtain a quality education and marketable job skills – and critics who charge the for-profits with churning out worthless degrees that leave students with a mountain of debt. At the center of it all stands a vulnerable population of potential students, often working adults eager for a university degree to move up the career ladder.

In the video excerpt from College, Inc. examines the business practices of for-profit colleges and universities:

Video Segment Themes:

• For-profit colleges and universities spend more money on marketing than some multinational brands like Tide, Revlon and FedEx. This spending can rival or exceed what is spent on instruction.
• The pressure on for-profit schools to continually add students and increase profits has raised concerns about some schools’ recruiting practices. In the early ’90s, a congressional investigation accused a number of for-profit schools of using false or misleading advertising and illegal recruitment efforts.
• While students at for-profit schools make up only 10 percent of the college-going public, they consume almost a quarter of all federal financial aid. The majority of a for-profit school’s revenue comes from federal grants and loans.
• Critics of for-profit schools say such institutions use high-pressure sales tactics to recruit students, provide easy access to federal financial aid, load them with debt, and leave the taxpayer stuck with the bill.
• For-profit institutions say they provide a valuable service to low-income and adult students that traditional higher education has given up on.