Kaplan University to Cut 200 Jobs

Kaplan University is a school that describes itself in the following terms, “Kaplan University is an institution of higher learning dedicated to providing innovative undergraduate, graduate, and continuing professional education. Our programs foster student learning with opportunities to launch, enhance, or change careers in today’s diverse global society. The University is committed to general education, a student-centered service and support approach, and applied scholarship in a practical environment. Who We Are Kaplan University is a part of Kaplan Higher Education Corp., which is a subsidiary of Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company. Today, Kaplan comprises half of the Post Company’s revenue and is its fastest-growing division.” The school is also something else, it is also an employer. An employer who is getting ready to lay off a significant number of its workers.

How many people will be getting the axe? Well according to official reports the company is getting ready to be rid of about 200 workers when all is said and done. While that is only about two percent of the overall number of staffers that the company employs on the whole, it is still more than enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” So, even though the layoffs are going to be spread through two locations in the state of Florida it is likely to  cause not one, but two mass layoff actions when all is said and done.

The school is attributing its cut backs in jobs to a decline in the number of students that are coming into the school in the last year or so. The schools decrease in admissions to its academic programs has been declining because of pressure from regulatory agencies, which have been looking more deeply in to the sales and admissions tactics used by for profit schools.

Of course, it is not only schools with a for profit designation that  are feeling the pinch in the current economy, and even schools that are not feeling a decline in their enrollments have been laying off in recent months. For those of you who are not familiar with our recent coverage of job cuts at another not for profit school here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “For those of you who are looking to put your hands onto some real numbers here the college employed about 3,100 people before the layoffs were begun. So the job cuts are set to impact 282 workers in total. That will be in the form of 215 full-time jobs lost and 67 part-time jobs lost. This will be more than enough to qualify as a mass layoff action.”