The global-education venture jointly owned by the parent company of the University of Phoenix and the Carlyle Group is working on a deal that would give it a wide international footprint in one fell swoop.

The venture, Apollo Global Inc., is negotiating to buy BPP Professional Education, the higher-education company that in 2007 became the first for-profit organization to offer degrees in Britain.

Apollo Global has offered the equivalent of $447-million for BPP, a company whose College of Professional Studies includes a law and business school. The global-education venture is 80.1 percent owned by Phoenix’s parent, the Apollo Group Inc. Carlyle, a private-equity firm, owns the rest.

In an announcement today, officials at the Apollo Group confirmed the negotiations but said it would have no further comment.

Apollo Global’s first purchase, in 2008, was a university in Chile. It later bought one in Mexico. —Goldie Blumenstyk