AMU, Phoenix top new analysis of military's most popular TA, GI Bill colleges

August 2, 2016
  • Industry News
  • gi bill
  • veteran

Veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill leveled off in fiscal 2015, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, marking the first time the popular new benefit failed to increase its base by tens or hundreds of thousands of users over the prior year.

Meanwhile, active-duty service members using military tuition assistance, or TA, fell by 2.7 percent from fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2015. But that drop is much less drastic than the 16 percent plummet charted a year earlier, data from the Defense Department and Coast Guard show.

Other information collected by Military Times as part of the annual analysis showed that for-profit institutions’ military students tend to pass classes at higher rates. University of Phoenix, a for-profit college the Defense Department briefly barred from enrolling new TA students in 2015-16, actually posted one of the best course completion rates among big TA schools.

Those outcomes challenge common perceptions about for-profit institutions, which have come under heightened scrutiny from Congress and federal agencies in recent years amid questions about their academic quality.

Officials at DoD, and among the military services, stress that the most popular colleges aren’t necessarily the best.

Read more at The Military Times: http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/education/gi-bill-ta/2016/07/27/amu-phoenix-top-new-analysis-militarys-most-popular-tuition-assistance-gi-bill-colleges-fiscal-2015/86713116/