Ashford University joins the lengthening list of for-profit higher ed enterprises that are pulling in their horns.

Down tens of thousands of online customers, the company is closing a campus.
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Ashford-U-Closed-Its-Iowa/231541/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Other examples:

1.  Corinthian Colleges is gone but not forgotten as its former students struggle for student-loan relief.

2.  Top ITT execs have been indicted by the US DOJ for fraud.

3.  In North Jersey a long-time for-profit business school, Drake College of Business, closed after trying to survive by recruiting the homeless into tis classrooms. Yeh, no kidding:
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Ashford-U-Closed-Its-Iowa/231541/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

4.  The University of Phoenix reportedly has laid off 900 since last fall.

I'm reminded of Japan in the early 1990s.  From Michael Creighton's "Rising Sun" (book and movie) to Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers," the demise of America at the hands of Nipponese dominance proved to be prematurely predicted.  Likewise, the demise of non-profit higher education at the hands of the "more savvy" (really?) for-profit companies has proven itself to be equally a fantasy.