Dive Brief:

• Adtalem Global Education made "significant progress" in its effort to transform into a professional education provider during the quarter ended June 30, including by completing the divestitures of for-profits DeVry University and Carrington College, the company's CEO Lisa Wardell told analysts during a call Thursday. 
• Enrollment at Adtalem's remaining for-profit colleges rose 4.2% year-over-year during the quarter to 113,830 students, with gains in its Chamberlain University offset by a 6% decrease in its medical and veterinary programs that Wardell partly attributed to the relocation of a key campus.
• The company also closed on the acquisition of a financial services education business during the quarter, which Wardell said "represents a long-term growth opportunity" for Adtalem's financial services vertical.

Dive Insight:

Adtalem has been focused on expanding its professional services education business. In 2017, the company changed its name from the DeVry Education Group, a move it said intended to reflect its focus on professional education in the health care and financial services sectors and a growing international footprint. The company was also reeling from lawsuits alleging it misled students, including one it settled for $100 million. 

Last year, it completed the sale of its DeVry University and Carrington College, making it one of several former for-profit college operators to reorient their business models, in this case around professional education.

That shift is reflected in new partnerships and acquisitions.

In June, Adtalem closed a deal to buy the financial services education business unit of OnCourse Learning for $121 million in cash. That strengthened its position in the banking, credit union and mortgage licensing sectors. A month before that, it announced a partnership with Northeastern University to offer a nondegree, online course in artificial intelligence for financial services.

On the health care side, Adtalem’s for-profit, nursing-focused Chamberlain University opened a new campus in San Antonio earlier this month. Adtalem hopes to address a projected shortage of nurses in that state.

Wardell expects growth in Chamberlain’s online master’s, the accellerated master's of science in nursing program and in its doctorate program. More interest online in the San Antonio area is also anticipated. 

"We get greater online growth as it relates to places where we have geographic expansion, and so we expect to see that in the San Antonio and the broader region in Texas as that campus opens," Wardell said. She added that Chamberlain would be testing and refining its pricing model so its advertised credit price is a closer match to what students end up paying.

Adtalem also recently sold the health care test prep assets of its Becker Professional Education business to Kaplan. The deal also includes a multiyear agreement for Kaplan to provide licensing exam prep programs to Adtalem's Ross University School of Medicine and the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine.

The deal "allows our test prep team to now focus purely on financial services," Wardell told analysts. "While medical is core for us, the test prep (business) is not so much on that side."

The company expects revenue to increase 5% to 7% in the 2020 fiscal year. During the 2019 fiscal year, revenue grew less than 1% year-over-year to $1.24 billion. 

Executives on the call did not directly address questions about recent reports that it was exploring the sale of its assets in Brazil, including its flagship university there.