Research Catalog

Title

Rebel with a cause : the entrepreneur who created the University of Phoenix and the for-profit revolution in higher education / John Sperling.

Author

Sperling, John G.

Publication

New York : Wiley, ©2000.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

vi, 265 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• "Rebel With A Cause is the tale of how a man born into poverty went on to establish the for-profit Institute for Professional Development, the University of Phoenix, and Apollo Group, America's largest higher education company. Here, Sperling tells his remarkable story for the first time. He was ostracized by his peers for debasing higher education and faced an unrelenting effort by the defenders of traditional education to destroy him by regulation. He recounts his successful battles to defend his vision of adult higher education from enemies in the academy, in the accrediting associations, in state and federal bureaucracies, and in the press."
• "This book offers a look at a man whose radical behavior - challenging authority, ignoring the advice of experts - could have been his undoing, but instead enabled him to rap into the skyrocketing market of adult education and turn it into an innovative, for-profit industry. It explores how he grew the University and its subsidiaries into what is now known as Apollo Group, which boasts over 125,000 students, an annual growth rate of 25 percent, and 1999 revenues of $500 million."
• "Rebel With A Cause also provides a glimpse of the intersection of business and education policy, examining Sperling's contrarian view of running higher education like a business - and, in the process, keeping America competitive. His cost-effective model, developed during the birth of the University of Phoenix, shows how the nation must adapt its education policy in order to produce skilled employees capable of competing in today's information economy."--Jacket.

Subject

• Sperling, John G
• University of Phoenix > History
• University of Phoenix
• Businesspeople > United States > Biography
• Education, Higher > Economic aspects > United States > Case studies
• For-profit universities and colleges > United States > Case studies
• Businesspeople
• Education, Higher > Economic aspects
• For-profit universities and colleges
• Ondernemers
• Opleidingen
• Ondernemerschap
• Universiteiten
• United States

Genre/Form

• Autobiography
• Autobiographies.
• Biographies.
• Case studies.
• History.
• Études de cas.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-258) and index.

Contents

Lessons -- The Education of John Sperling: Part I--1939 to 1954--A Sea Change -- The Education of John Sperling: Part II--1954 to 1960--Voyage to Europe -- San Jose State and the Transmogrification of John Sperling: Reentering Academe -- The Unintentional Entrepreneur: Summing Up -- Exodus from California and Flight to the Valley of the Sun: Seeking a Strategy for Survival -- The War in Arizona: Setting the Scene -- Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: Part I--1979 to 1981--The FBI Arrives--RICO -- Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: Part II--1981 to 1986 -- Toward an IPO and Beyond: Preparation for and Launch of the IPO--1986 to 2000 -- Giving Back: Part I -- Giving Back: Part II--The War against the War on Drugs -- Giving Back: Part III--The Second Battle for Proposition 200.

ISBN

• 0471326046
• 9780471326045

LCCN

• 99037671
• 9780471326045

OCLC

• ocm41649723
• 41649723
• SCSB-8922152

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library