#1568 2008 · 2U (2Tor) · higher education technology
Build the University's Online Degree for a Cut of Tuition
问题
Universities wanted online degrees but could not fund the build; vendors wanted fees universities would not pay.
背景
2U, founded in 2008 as 2Tor and renamed in 2012, launched its first client program in 2009 with a structure the S-1 describes as tuition revenue-sharing arrangements under the bundled-services rule.
Instead of licensing software for fixed fees, the company builds and runs the online program — platform, production, marketing, admissions support — and is repaid as a contractually specified percentage of the tuition and fees the program generates.
换别人会怎么做
License the platform for annual software fees.
他们看到了什么
The university had no capital but owned the credential students pay for. The vendor had no credential but could build the machinery — marrying the two through tuition share meant neither side's scarcity blocked the deal.
那一手
Skin in the tuition: the vendor is paid from outcomes (enrolled students' tuition) rather than from the university's budget, so the university risks no capital and the vendor's upside depends entirely on building programs students actually pay for. The financing mechanism is the product — it converts a cash-strapped institution's ambition into a revenue-linked partnership.
为什么管用
Universities face no upfront cost, so saying yes is easy; the vendor's heavy per-program investment is recouped only by enrollments it helps create; long contracts protect the payback period.
值了多少
Scaled from the first 2009 program to a portfolio of university clients on tuition-revenue-share contracts (SEC S-1).
什么时候会失灵
Revenue shares that consume most of tuition invite political backlash and regulatory scrutiny; the vendor is levered to enrollment trends it does not fully control; and when program quality or student outcomes disappoint, the contract's length becomes a liability for both parties.
后来呢
Defined the OPM (online program management) industry, whose revenue-share terms later became a national policy controversy over who profits from tuition.
资料来源
- [1]2U Inc. Form S-1 (2014 IPO registration)SEC EDGAR (2U Inc.), 2014sec.gov