Although it will be months before the Association of University Technology Managers releases the actual data from its survey of patents and licensing by universities and other organizations in the 2009 fiscal year, a summary of the findings it issued today indicates that the number of licenses executed increased by more than 5 percent over the previous year while the number of new start-up companies based on academic inventions remained about the same. The summary was based on information from 153 American universities and 28 other organizations. The association expects to issue its full report on the 2009 year in December.

Capella University, an all-online for-profit institution, has named Larry A. Isaak, a longtime leader in public higher education, as its next president. Mr. Isaak served for nearly 10 years as chancellor of the North Dakota University System and is now president of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, an organization that provides policy and services to colleges in states across the Midwest. Mr. Isaak, who will take office in November, replaces the university's interim president, Michael Offerman, who will remain with the university and its parent company, Capella Education.

Responding to the publication of data on colleges that have failed the Department of Education's test of financial responsiblity, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities said Thursday that students should not rule out attending one of the 150 nonprofit institutions "simply because it's listed" with a failing score. The comment came in a  a statement from the association saying that some institutions failed the test based on the "day the snapshot" of their financial health was taken, "and today would pass the test with flying colors." It also said that some colleges were on the list because of the way the calculation accounts for certain resources, and that it and other higher-education groups are working with the department to alter that methodology.

Westwood College, a for-profit institution whose recruiting practices were spotlighted in a U.S. Senate hearing last week on abusive tactics, announced on Monday that it will no longer calculate pay for its admissions representatives based on how they meet "enrollment targets." The college said it would also raise its admissions standards, expand a "mystery shopper" program to assure compliance with its procedures, and immediately begin using a new admissions presentation that gives prospective students more information about the cost of its degrees and the job prospects for its graduates. Westwood said it has already hired outside lawyers to investigate admissions practices at all of its campuses.

Last week, Kaplan Inc., which has two campuses whose tactics were highlighted at the hearing, said it would investigate the campuses and suspended admissions at both.

Responding to what it called a "deeply troubling" government report that highlighted extensive examples of aggressive recruiting by for-profit colleges, the Career College Association has announced that it will initiate a series of steps to rein in abusive practices by its member colleges. The program will include a tougher code of compliance and the development of an industrywide "mystery shopper" program to help police colleges' recruiting and financial-advising practices. Separately, the nation's largest private college, the University of Phoenix, announced that it had begun an internal investigation into conduct cited in the report and noted that a training slide for university recruiters that was shown at a Senate hearing on Wednesday was from 2003 and "does not reflect the values of the current leadership team who do not condone the attitude represented by this particular slide."

The Apollo Group is back on the hook to pay $280-million to investors who accused the company of failing to disclose information about a government challenge to recruiting practices at the University of Phoenix, one of its subsidiaries. A 2008 jury verdict ordering the payment, which had been overturned, was reinstated by a federal appeals court on Wednesday. Apollo officials, who announced the decision in a press release, said they would pursue "all available options" to have the decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed.

The Career College Association, which represents more than 1,000 mostly for-profit colleges and universities, is changing its name to the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities. The new name and acronym "APSCU" (not to be confused with the recently renamed APLU, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, or with AASCU, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities)  were chosen to represent the 1,800-member association's evolution from its trade-school roots, said Harris N. Miller, its president, in a statement issued from its annual meeting, in Las Vegas. Said Mr. Miller: "The phrase 'private sector' is synonymous with innovation in virtually every walk of life, and the public's faith in private-sector solutions to solve most of society's biggest challenges will carry over into the realm of higher education too."

Seven universities, led by the University of California system, were among the 300 organizations awarded the most United States patents in 2009, according to a compilation by the Intellectual Property Owners Association. The 10-campus UC system ranked 83rd on the list, with 251 patents. It was followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (ranked 153rd, with 134 patents), the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which manages patents for the University of Wisconsin at Madison (173rd, with 115 patents), Stanford University (178th, with 110 patents), the University of Texas (191st, with 98 patents), the California Institute of Technology (198th, with 93 patents), and the University of Illinois (266th, with 65 patents). The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ceased compiling rankings three years ago to avoid the perception that it was endorsing the theory that more patents were...

Accreditors and a top official in the U.S. Department of Education are responding to a report by Bloomberg BusinessWeek on aggressive recruiting tactics by for-profit colleges, including accounts that representatives of the University of Phoenix, Chancellor University (in Cleveland), and Drake College of Business (in Newark, N.J.) troll homeless shelters and pressure their residents to take out loans to enroll. The accreditor for Drake said it was investigating allegations that the college had lured students by offering them biweekly stipends of $350 for good attendance and a C average. Robert Shireman, a deputy under secretary of education, is quoted in the report as saying that "targeting vulnerable populations who are not likely to benefit" is the reason the department has proposed stricter rules to contain overzealous recruiting.