Dive Brief:

• A proposed partnership between the Thunderbird School of Global Management and for-profit Laureate Education Inc. is dead, but Thunderbird is vowing to find another.
• The proposal had been strongly opposed by many Thunderbird alumni, but it was probably a rejection by an accreditor — the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Associations of Colleges and Schools — that delivered the death blow.
• At the time of the accreditor’s rejection, Thunderbird predicted that the problems outlined could be fixed quickly. But the accreditor then said the issues were significant.

Dive Insight:

In an interview with Insider Higher Ed, Thunderbird President Larry Penley said that discussions with a potential partner have begun, but he wouldn’t say with whom. According to the Wall Street Journal, Thunderbird had, in 2012, started discussions with Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Hult International Business School, and Middlebury College about a possible partnership, and the school has recently contacted some of them again. Thunderbird alumni had opposed the Laureate plan because, they said, the association with a for-profit education company would cheapen the school’s name and the value of their degrees.