Aspen Group Inc's Competitiveness

There are more than 4,600 U.S. colleges and universities serving traditional college age students and adult students.* Any reference to universities herein also includes colleges. Competition is highly fragmented and varies by geography, program offerings, delivery method, ownership, quality level, and selectivity of admissions. No one institution has a significant share of the total postsecondary market. While we compete in a sense with traditional “brick and mortar” universities, our primary competitors are with universities that primarily enroll online students. Our primarily online university competitors that are publicly traded include: American Public Education, Inc. (Nasdaq: APEI), Adtalem Global Education (NYSE: ATGE), Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (Nasdaq: LOPE), Capella Education Company (Nasdaq: CPLA), Strayer Education (Nasdaq: STRA) and Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE: BPI). We also compete with the privately owned Apollo Education Group, which includes University of Phoenix and is considered the market leader based on total enrollments.

These competitors have degreed enrollments ranging from approximately 38,000 to 90,000 students. As of April 30, 2018, the Company had 7,057 active degree-seeking students enrolled.

The primary mission of most traditional accredited four-year universities is to serve full-time students and conduct research. Most online universities serve working adults. Aspen Group acknowledges the differences in the educational needs between working and full-time students at “brick and mortar” schools and provides programs and services that allow our students to earn their degrees without major disruption to their personal and professional lives.

We also compete with public and private degree-granting regionally and nationally accredited universities. An increasing number of universities enroll working students in addition to the traditional 18 to 24 year-old students, and we expect that these universities will continue to modify their existing programs to serve working learners more effectively, including by offering more distance learning programs. We believe that the primary factors on which we compete are the following:

Active and relevant curriculum development that considers the needs of employers;

The ability to provide flexible and convenient access to programs and classes;

High-quality courses and services;

Comprehensive student support services;

Breadth of programs offered;

The time necessary to earn a degree;

Qualified and experienced faculty;

Reputation of the institution and its programs;

The variety of geographic locations of campuses;

Regulatory approvals;

Cost of the program;

Name recognition; and

Convenience.

Digest of Education Statistics, 2015, nces.ed.gov

Academics

Aspen University

School of Nursing

School of Education

School of Business and Technology

School of Professional Studies

United States University

College of Nursing

College of Business and Management

College of Education

College of Health Sciences

Extended Studies