A 36-year-old entrepreneur has bought the University of Law.
Self-made millionaire Aaron Etingen paid an undisclosed sum to Montagu Private Equity for the former charity. Etingen is the founder and executive chairman of Global University Systems, which owns several higher education businesses including Britain's largest private college, the London School of Business and Finance.
Etingen started his empire from a London attic and cites Steve Jobs and Walt Disney as his heros. He also once launched an online MBA which students only had to pay for at the end if they chose to sit the exam. If he takes that approach with the LPC, allowing students without training contracts to avoid an expensive gamble, he would put all the other law schools out of business.
However GUS doesn't have a perfect record. Last year, lecturers at the GUS-owned London College of Contemporary Arts leaked a letter which complained of overcrowding and under-resourcing. In February another GUS college was suspended from the student loans system for three months after questions were raised about the explosive growth in the number of its publicly-funded students.
Whether Etingen is an innovator or a pile 'em high merchant remains to be seen, but he does at least specialise in the education business, and has been in it for over a decade. Unlike Montagu, which is exiting its investment after just three years. Under its guiding hand ULaw lost clients including Allen & Overy in 2013 and then Clifford Chance, as well as DWF, Osborne Clarke and a huge contract with the Open University. And back in 2012, RollOnFriday predicted that Montagu's eye was actually on the institution's major property portfolio. Lo and behold, last year it flogged the valuable Bloomsbury campus for £68m. And with that windfall Montagu is getting out.
Big questions remain. Montagu paid £177 million for ULaw in 2012 (and promptly saddled the Uni with the same amount of debt), but the new sale price is shrouded in secrecy*. So students will just have to guess how much money former ULaw Emeritus President Professor Provost Turkey Pleasurer Nigel Savage made selling his shares in ULaw, which he nobly accepted after overseeing its termination as a charity and sale to the private equity house.
Commenting on the deal, Etingen said ULaw would "provide a proven governance and quality framework for GUS’ UK interests" and "further enhance the impact of our work with students and employers alike”.
*if you know, tip off RoF and win a t-shirt.
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Self-made millionaire Aaron Etingen paid an undisclosed sum to Montagu Private Equity for the former charity. Etingen is the founder and executive chairman of Global University Systems, which owns several higher education businesses including Britain's largest private college, the London School of Business and Finance.
Etingen started his empire from a London attic and cites Steve Jobs and Walt Disney as his heros. He also once launched an online MBA which students only had to pay for at the end if they chose to sit the exam. If he takes that approach with the LPC, allowing students without training contracts to avoid an expensive gamble, he would put all the other law schools out of business.
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Etingen refused to get in the strange man's balloon |
However GUS doesn't have a perfect record. Last year, lecturers at the GUS-owned London College of Contemporary Arts leaked a letter which complained of overcrowding and under-resourcing. In February another GUS college was suspended from the student loans system for three months after questions were raised about the explosive growth in the number of its publicly-funded students.
Whether Etingen is an innovator or a pile 'em high merchant remains to be seen, but he does at least specialise in the education business, and has been in it for over a decade. Unlike Montagu, which is exiting its investment after just three years. Under its guiding hand ULaw lost clients including Allen & Overy in 2013 and then Clifford Chance, as well as DWF, Osborne Clarke and a huge contract with the Open University. And back in 2012, RollOnFriday predicted that Montagu's eye was actually on the institution's major property portfolio. Lo and behold, last year it flogged the valuable Bloomsbury campus for £68m. And with that windfall Montagu is getting out.
Big questions remain. Montagu paid £177 million for ULaw in 2012 (and promptly saddled the Uni with the same amount of debt), but the new sale price is shrouded in secrecy*. So students will just have to guess how much money former ULaw Emeritus President Professor Provost Turkey Pleasurer Nigel Savage made selling his shares in ULaw, which he nobly accepted after overseeing its termination as a charity and sale to the private equity house.
Commenting on the deal, Etingen said ULaw would "provide a proven governance and quality framework for GUS’ UK interests" and "further enhance the impact of our work with students and employers alike”.
*if you know, tip off RoF and win a t-shirt.
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