Well, we are about to start into a new year with the lowest number of students Everest and WyoTech have ever had. We will be UNDER 10,000 total students. Two years ago when ECMC took over the schools there were over 33,000 students and in less than two years Zenith has managed to reduce the population by a whopping 70%. With exciting numbers like that how are we supposed to have much hope for the future of this company? Peter Taylor was hired to make Zenith Education Group profitable and he is known for cost cutting by closings, consolidations and reductions in payroll. I feel less secure today than I felt two years ago when we were waiting for the sale to go through.
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Actually we're headed in the right direction, right into oblivion.
Zenith won't close, it's too profitable for ECMC to close. Zenith Education Group students have a student loan default rate of around 40%. ECMC get paid 35% by the DOE to collect on those delinquent student loans. If Zenith has 5000 students a year go into default, ECMC stands to make over 400 million dollars collecting on those loans. The more d---beat students Zenith Education enrolls the more ECMC makes on the back end. If ECMC loses 100 million dollars a year on Zenith Education Group, ECMC still makes 300 million dollars net profit per year plus they don't pay taxes on that money. It's a win win for ECMC. And people call for-profit education a sham, ECMC pulled a fast one on the government, tax payers, students and the for-profits.
WOW! Thanks for the info -2evg. I had no idea that it had declined that much. Its hard to see how they keep this thing going another year.
There are 21 Everest and 3 WyoTech campuses left. Everest Online has been decimated since ECMC took over. There has been numerous downsizing of staff at online. They may have 1000 students left at online.
8-10 more closures? How many are still open? How many students are online only?
The talk I'm hearing are plans for the elimination of 8 to 10 more campuses toward the end of the 1st quarter. Enrollment is flat or still dropping at too many campuses and more cost reduction is necessary. They've been working on the details of which ones can be consolidated and which ones will be taught out. Look for another bomb drop in March or April.
Good for Dave and Mary. I liked them both when I was there. Now to my remaining friends at Zenith:
FOLLOW THEM!
An organization can certainly survive with 10000 students but not this one. I've been gone more than a year but I'm told that their corporate overhead is still massive. I don't understand why. So if none of the campuses are profitable without overhead allocated can you imagine how unprofitable they are with allocation? I'd get out of there asap. Don't let the last entry on your resume to be your failure at Zenith only preceded by your failure at CCI. Go get a job somewhere that is either profitable or at least meeting there mission. Zenith is doing neither.
The END IS NEAR. How can an organization survive on less that 10,000 students?
I'm surprised that Mary lasted as long as she did. I think she is a better fit in a community college system. They move slowly and conservatively. Zenith needed to move quickly. They haven't. Mary was an academic in a non-academic world. Too slow and plodding.
Is Tom O'Donnell still there? Burthalter?
Her LinkedIn profile says she works for a museum. Her name used to be on all the campus catalogs under Zenith executives, but it's no longer listed. The latest update was October, 2016.
Is it confirmed that Mary left?
Any "not-for-profit" is allowed to retain earnings.
Dave and Mary both jumped ship and Taylor would only commit to a maximum of one year. I expect to see him leave sooner than a year since Zenith lost another 100 million in 2016. ECMC has blown through over 250 million in two years with no end to the bleeding in sight.
Zenith is not-for-profit. But I agree with the rest of your points. It is still far too expensive for unacceptable outcomes.
I'm shocked there are any new students. The degree is worthless and the cost is wasted. I guess there is a s---er born everyday and Everest knows how to find them. I hope these monumental waste of government money ends on for profit schools, what a waste of money!
And of the 10,000 students how many are exclusively online?
Yup. It's all part of The Plan. FYI, there is no part of The Plan that has anything to do with building - or even saving - the schools. What's your plan?
You can see what's coming, all you have to do is look at who has left. There's no one left at corporate level that were there a year ago. They've all left Zenith for higher ground.