A “World’s Top Company”:
Southern New Hampshire University
MNGT 5650
APRIL 14, 2015
Southern New Hampshire University In 2012, Fast Company magazine named Southern New Hampshire University to its annual “World’s Most Innovative Company List”. It is the first carbon-neutral (refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference) campus in New Hampshire, among the few nationwide and it is one of the fastest growing and most dynamic private, non-profit universities in the country, but it is not a company. So why did a university make the list? Bloomberg Businessweek went to investigate. SNHU is the largest university in New Hampshire, a quant red-brick New England campus that is the home to 2,750 undergraduate students. The 80 year old university has been undergoing a facelift lately, by adding a new building every year, including a new dining hall, a state of the art academic building, new dorms, and a new library/learning center. While most small private schools are struggling, Southern New Hampshire University is thriving. Where is the revenue coming from to finance these projects? Massive Open Online Courses, MOOCs. SNHU has an average of 25,000 students that are enrolled online. Classes are designed by subject matter experts but taught by part time instructors. The total cost for an online bachelor’s program is $38,000. The school’s management forecasts that revenues will reach $200 million in the 2012 academic year, four times what it took in in 2011, making it one of the biggest and fastest growing online operations at any not for profit college in the US. The university is projecting a $29 million profit from the online college, which amounts to a 22 percent margin. Some of the money is being put back in the online operation and the rest is being using for a campus building boom. President Paul J. LeBlanc is the architect of the online strategy. He sees no contradictions in using the profits from the online programs to fund programs and projects for the university. There have been concerns with this innovative strategy such as the quality and value of an online degree. There is a stigma that people taking online courses earned lower grades and were more likely to fail or withdraw. There is also the problem of being compared to the University of Phoenix, whose high student loan defaults and aggressive marketing have drawn scrutiny from Congress and from state and federal authorities. The University of Phoenix has paid several government fines and settled whistle-blower lawsuits concerning its admissions practices and education programs. According