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In their scramble to educate employees, corporations spend upwards of $40 billion a year (vs. $60 billion-plus for colleges and universities). That kind of money has bought some magnificent facilities, of which the most awesome is Xerox's 2,265-acre complex outside Leesburg, Va. Here an average of 1,200 students a year take company training programs one to seven weeks long. When not in class, they luxuriate in the outdoor pool; racquetball, squash, tennis and basketball courts; beauty parlor, bar and dance floor. Almost as impressive is AT&T's center near Princeton, N.J., with 23 classrooms, seven laboratories, four conference rooms, library, auditorium and 300-bed residence hall. This fall IBM, whose reported $700 million annual education expenditures probably lead those of all other corporations, plans to consolidate its four corporate technical institutes at a 250-acre supercampus in Thornwood, N.Y.
At such facilities, and humbler ones, corporations educate in ways that "surpass many universities" in the judgment of the Carnegie study. Courses have clear goals centered on getting results. "I'm going to take what I learn here Monday and Tuesday," says a Digital Equipment student, "and apply it Wednesday or Thursday." Faculties work on contract, with performance monitored, rather than enjoy the sometimes soporific security of lifetime tenure. Study hours and program lengths are set for efficiency and accessibility, instead of lockstep 50-minute daytime classes in four-month semesters.
Corporate programs have acquired "an academic legitimacy of their own," says the study. The same regional accrediting associations that endorse course work at conventional colleges have approved corporate classes taught by company instructors or by university professors on corporate teach-ins. In- house education and training in company practices and products make up the majority of the 12 million courses paid for by businesses. But whether class is down the hall from the office or on a campus, employee-students usually get much or all of their schooling free, and some get a full salary while learning. Some high-tech companies may soon budget 15% to 20% of a worker's paid time for training and education.
Of the 18 business-launched colleges and universities that grant degrees, half have earned that status since 1977, and they are growing stronger. Three years ago, for example, when General Motors spun off its 66-year-old General Motors Institute, in Flint, Mich., G.M.I. launched its first master's program. G.M.I. already was educating 2,500 students for bachelor's degrees in engineering and industrial administration. "Academically it's just as tough as, or better than, other institutions," says G.M.I. Sophomore Kris Lang, 19. Northrop University, an offshoot of the Los Angeles aeronautical corporation, gets much the same rating from many of its students. By 1988, eight more companies plan to develop 19 degree programs. In so doing, corporations aim to provide students with what a Xerox executive calls "the competitive edge." Four examples of corporate schools where that edge is already being honed: