Conference Call Highlights: Apollo Group Shows Student Loans Available

Apollo Group's FQ109 shows that online education is growing in popularity. Despite tuition increases, enrollment is up as non-skilled workers seek to upgrade their chances of snagging a job in this downturn.

Student loans appear to be accessible, and Apollo says that its Global segment, where students tend to pay more "out of pocket", is unaffected. The company is unclear as to whether Obama's stimulus package will include student financing or how it will affect student loans.

From Apollo Group Inc. FQ109 conference call: (APOL)

This is the third quarter in a row we've seen an acceleration of our new student enrollment growth… New bachelor enrollments… grew almost 20% during the first quarter.

We're really very pleased with these results; however, we don't expect to maintain this level of new enrollment growth over the long term as we believe some of this growth is attributable to current economic conditions.

Q: [What will] we see in federal funding of higher education [in terms of] an economic stimulus package?

A: We don't know for sure what that's going to look like with a new administration coming in. I'm sure you've seen some of the reports out there that have talked about the potential to add more dollars to Title IV or to components of it... We'd be thrilled, you know, if there were more money available for our students and all students to go to college, but it's too early to make a call on it.

We have not had our students experience significant difficulty at this point in gaining funding for our education.

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