Qnity Institute Report

December 2025

Dr. Bruce Kellison and Dr. Matt Kammer-Kerwick of the Bureau of Business Research at The University of Texas at Austin have released a new report, Costs and Other Aspects of Nursing Education Models: A Multifactorial Comparison of For-Profit and Public/Nonprofit Training Programs, confirming that for-profit programs cost taxpayers roughly 50 percent less per student.

The study compares the cost and performance of Registered Nurse (RN) and Practical Nurse (PN) programs across different sectors of higher education using federal data, institutional interviews, and a survey of recent graduates. The report concludes that for-profit programs deliver comparable outcomes to public and nonprofit programs at a significantly lower cost to taxpayers. 

According to the analysis, the taxpayer cost per student averages $14,482 at public and nonprofit RN programs compared to just $4,775 at for-profit RN programs. Taxpayer cost per student at public and nonprofit PN programs averaged $13,668 compared to $7,150 at for-profit PN programs. 

The report notes that for-profit colleges have historically had higher graduation rates and expands the outcomes analysis to find that median earnings for RN programs are similar across public, nonprofit, and for-profit programs. 

Additionally, median earnings for graduates of for-profit PN programs are sometimes higher than for graduates of public/private nonprofit institutions. According to the authors, “In some areas of the country, according to some of the experts we interviewed, public/private nonprofits like community colleges and universities cannot keep up with demand for nursing training.” For-profit nursing programs meet the demand for nursing training without the waiting lists that are common at public and nonprofit nursing programs and without imposing a burden on taxpayers. 

About the CECU Research Foundation

The CECU Research Foundation prioritizes the funding of credible research into school outcomes and how proprietary career colleges fare in comparison to peer institutions in other sectors of higher education. The CECU Research Foundation is a 501(c)3 subsidiary of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), the national association representing proprietary career schools. Studies funded by the CECU Research Foundation are executed independently and without bias from CECU or the Foundation in order to provide an accurate evaluation of the different sectors of higher education.

Please direct inquiries to Riley Burr, Executive Director of the CECU Research Foundation, at riley.burr@career.org.