What's next for higher ed's for-profit colleges?

Some of the country's biggest for-profit colleges don't want to be for-profits anymore.Roughly a dozen deals in the last few years indicate that large institutions that outlasted the sector's downfall are seeking an operational model that will serve them no matter what party controls the White House."[I]f we're going to get a deal done, it's going to have to happen now because nobody knows what's going to happen in 2020," said Trace Urdan, a managing director at investment firm Tyton Partners who analyzes the for-profit sector.The Education Department's "laissez-faire attitude" toward these transactions is giving for-profits space to explore new models, Urdan and others said. But growing uncertainty around the department's ability to achieve its regulatory agenda has those colleges looking for fresh cover in the form of mergers and acquisitions or conversions to nonprofit status.And they expect the pace at which colleges are doing so to pick up.