We’re keeping tabs on how companies are performing to get a glimpse into where higher education has been and where it’s headed.
Several major higher education companies are publicly traded, which means they're required to provide regular disclosures about their strategies and performance. When they do so, they also offer a glimpse at where the higher education sector is headed.
Below, we’re tracking some of the most prominent public companies in the sector, from those that help colleges launch and run online programs to those that own for-profit institutions.
Information is collected from the companies’ filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and their quarterly calls with analysts. We will update this page when companies post new earnings documents throughout their 2022 fiscal years.
Have feedback or want to suggest a public company we should be tracking? Contact us here.
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Performance at a glance:
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Perdoceo’s revenue declines were largely due to enrollment declines at the two for-profit institutions it oversees: Colorado Technical University and the American InterContinental University System.
Enrollment decreased 2.3% year over year to 26,000 students at Colorado Technical by the end of June. It dropped even more sharply, by 14.5% from the year before, at American InterContinental University System, which now has about 14,100 students.
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Grand Canyon Education, or GCE, provides services such as marketing and recruitment to its largest client, Grand Canyon University, in exchange for a cut of the institution’s tuition revenue. But enrollment at the university fell to 92,233 students by the end of June, down 5.7% from the same period last year. Those declines were driven by a decrease in online enrollments, pushing down the company’s revenue.
Still, GCE earned more revenue per student. That trend was driven by the university increasing room, board and other auxiliary revenue in 2022’s first half compared to the same period in the prior year.
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The MOOC platform now counts about 54 million learners and 12,000 customers of Udemy Business, which allows companies to provide training to their workers. Udemy Business is growing rapidly, with revenue reaching $74.6 million in the second quarter, up 77% from the year before.
The company also snagged high-profile customers for Udemy Business, including Samsung SDS and Cision US.
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CEO Steve Daly touted the company’s market share gains in the learning management system sector. Daly cited a recent report from Edutechnica showing that Instructure’s LMS, Canvas, was used by 42% of U.S. higher education institutions, up from 39% last year.
The company also experienced growth internationally, though Instructure’s LMS isn’t as widely used in foreign countries as it is in the U.S. “With our international higher education LMS market share in the single digits, we expect this segment to remain our fastest growing segment in the years ahead,” Daly said on a call with analysts.
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Zovio announced that it terminated its contract with the University of Arizona Global Campus, an online college to which it provided education technology services like enrollment and recruitment. Additionally, it sold this segment of its business to UAGC.
Under the purchase agreement, UAGC paid Zovio $1, took over an eight-year lease worth $20 million, hired “substantially all” educational services employees and released the company from all obligations under the prior contract. Zovio, meanwhile, paid UAGC $10.5 million and gave the university the right to a security deposit worth $2.7 million for taking over the lease. Read more.
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2U announced across-the-board layoffs as the online program management company reoriented its company around edX, a MOOC platform that it recently acquired. The restructuring is expected to result in $70 million in annual cost savings.
The company also announced changes to its tuition-share agreements. Companies can contract with 2U to help launch and manage their online programs in return for a share of their revenue — a cut now starting at 35%. Colleges that want more services will pay higher shares. Read more.
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Coursera, one of the world’s most prominent MOOC platforms, reported overall revenue growth in the second quarter. However, revenue from the company’s degree segment declined 4% to $11.4 million.
The company helps colleges launch online degree programs on its platform in exchange for a cut of their tuition revenue. CEO Jeff Maggioncalda said the degree segment saw declines because enrollment was lower than expected, particularly in programs where the company’s revenue is concentrated. Read more.
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Strategic Education continued to report enrollment challenges. Enrollment at Strayer and Capella universities decreased to about 77,000 students, declining almost 9% from a year ago.
However, Karl McDonnell, Strategic Education’s CEO, said demand has been picking up for the company’s U.S. institutions. He also said that Workforce Edge, a tuition benefits platform the company owns, had 45 corporate agreements by the end of the second quarter, up from about 20 at the same time last year. Read more.
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Zovio officials said they were continuing to explore selling all three segments of the company’s business, which are a boot camp provider, an online tutoring firm and a contract to provide educational services to the University of Arizona Global Campus.
Randy Hendricks, Zovio’s CEO, said the company is also hoping to improve enrollment at UAGC and grow the two other businesses. Read more.
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2U leaders are hoping that becoming more consumer-centric will help identify more prospective students for the company, which helps colleges launch and run online degrees. They also touted 2U’s recent acquisition of edX, a MOOC platform, and predicted it would account for 10% of the company’s overall lead volume in 2022.
Chip Paucek, 2U’s CEO, said the company added all of its degree and other educational programs to edX’s website — a pivotal step in making the MOOC platform the company’s consumer-facing brand. Read more.
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Adtalem CEO Stephen Beard said the for-profit operator had notched several recent wins. They include selling Adtalem’s financial services segment for $1 billion, using $770 million of the proceeds from the sale to pay off debt, and starting to buy back $150 million worth of the company’s shares.
Adtalem also continued a new operating model meant to share services across the company’s for-profit colleges. Still, enrollment at those institutions continued to decline, particularly in post-licensure nursing programs.
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Officials at Perdoceo, which runs the for-profit American InterContinental University System and Colorado Technical University, said they expect enrollment declines to continue for the rest of 2022. By the end of March, total student enrollments at Perdoceo’s institutions were 14.7% lower than they were a year ago.
Perdoceo CEO Andrew Hurst blamed those declines on the coronavirus pandemic. He said students have been pausing their education or deciding not to enroll altogether.
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Grand Canyon Education continued to face enrollment challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic, company leaders said. The company provides education services to more than two dozen colleges, and its largest client is Grand Canyon University. The institution’s enrollment fell to 106,003 students by the end of March, down 4.5% from a year ago.
Leaders partly blamed the decreases on recruiting challenges caused by reduced access to the sites where prospective students work. However, Grand Canyon University’s on-campus enrollment grew to 21,504 students by the end of the quarter, representing a 9% increase. Read more.
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Udemy, a prominent MOOC provider, touted new corporate clients in the first quarter, including Baptist Health System and Crocs. It also created a new product for corporate clients that matches Udemy’s courses with workers’ professional aspirations.
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Instructure, the company that owns the learning management system Canvas, touted several new clients. Starting in the first quarter, all 23 California State University institutions had selected Canvas.
The company also recently announced the acquisition of Concentric Sky, which developed a tool to award badges for microcredentials. Instructure hopes to use the tool to better reach nontraditional online learners.
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Karl McDonnell, CEO of Strategic Education, said the company’s declining revenue reflects roughly two years’ of falling enrollment at Strayer University, a for-profit college. McDonnell stressed that turning around that trend is the highest priority of the company, which also owns the for-profit Capella University.
Strategic Education finished the quarter with 37 corporate agreements for Workforce Edge, a tuition benefits platform the company helped launch. Officials are hoping the portal will entice workers to enroll in Strayer and Capella universities. It aims to have almost 1,000 students recruited through the platform by the end of 2022.
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Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda said the MOOC platform recently surpassed 100 million registered learners. Maggioncalda contended the company’s growth is partly due to automation requiring workers to learn new skills.
In turn, college campuses are hoping to bolster the quality of their offerings, Maggioncalda said. Coursera continued to see growth in its enterprise segment, which includes businesses, governments and college customers that contract with the company for access to its educational offerings.
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Adtalem CEO Stephen Beard touted the company’s recent agreement to sell the company’s financial services segment for $1 billion. The move is meant to help Adtalem, which owns several for-profit colleges, to transition into primarily being a provider of health care education.
Yet the company continued to face declining enrollment at its institutions. Beard chalked up those dips to coronavirus-related challenges that forced health care workers to delay their education plans. He gave the example of the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant.
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Adtalem Global Education, which runs several for-profit colleges, is continuing its transition to becoming an education provider solely focused on health care, said Stephen Beard, the company’s new CEO.
During the first quarter, Adtalem continued integrating Walden University, a for-profit institution it acquired in August, into the company. As part of the acquisition, Adtalem is introducing a new operating model to share services across the company’s institutions.
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