Corporate Colleges

While corporate institutions of higher education have not had a high profile over the years, they have caught the attention of a few scholars.  For those who are interested, Gordon Thompson's article, "Unfulfilled Prophecy: The Evolution of Corporate Colleges," from The Journal of Higher Education [Vol. 71, No. 3 (May - Jun., 2000), pp. 322-341] available through JSTOR provides a good introduction.  Thompson begins by reviewing different definitions of corporate colleges, including alternative ways they can be categorized.

Brief sketches of three institutions that have closed are included in Thompson's article [the highlighted text below links to corresponding pages on Wikipedia]:

• Northrop University, began as a division of Northrop Corporation in 1942 and became independent in 1957, ultimately closing in 1993.
• Wang Institute of Graduate Studies started by Wang Laboratories in 1979 and later closed in 1987.
• Watterson College, created as the College of Computer Sciences, later becoming MetriData Institute, purchased by Jostens in 1983 and ultimately closed in 1993.