Grand Canyon Education Inc (LOPE) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call for Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I will now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Chief Financial Officer, Dan Bachus. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Grand Canyon Education, Inc. 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議（操作員說明）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。我現在將會議交給今天的發言人、首席財務官丹·巴克斯 (Dan Bachus)。請繼續。

Joining me on today's call is our Chairman and CEO, Brian Mueller. Please note that many of our comments today will contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Various factors could cause our actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such statements. These factors are discussed in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. We undertake no obligation to provide updates with regard to the forward-looking statements made during this call, and we recommend that all investors review these reports thoroughly before taking a financial position in GCE.

我們的董事長兼首席執行官布萊恩·穆勒 (Brian Mueller) 參加了今天的電話會議。請注意，我們今天的許多評論將包含涉及風險和不確定性的前瞻性陳述。各種因素可能導致我們的實際結果與此類聲明明示或暗示的任何未來結果存在重大差異。這些因素在我們向 SEC 提交的文件中進行了討論，包括表格 10-K 的年度報告、表格 10-Q 的季度報告以及表格 8-K 的當前報告。我們沒有義務提供有關本次電話會議期間所做前瞻性陳述的最新信息，我們建議所有投資者在對 GCE 進行財務狀況之前仔細閱讀這些報告。

And with that, I will turn the call over to Brian.

這樣，我會將電話轉給布萊恩。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Grand Canyon Education's First Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Conference Call. GCE had a very good quarter, exceeding enrollment expectations, exceeding consensus revenue estimates at mid $0.6 million and producing a $0.04 beat in adjusted diluted earnings per share to consensus. Given how most of higher education is coming out of COVID years, these are excellent results. Most importantly, GCU Online produced significant new enrollment growth for the third consecutive quarter over prior year, and that momentum is expected to continue into the second quarter of 2023.

下午好，感謝您參加 Grand Canyon Education 2023 財年第一季度電話會議。 GCE 的季度業績非常好，超出了入學率預期，超出了 60 萬美元中期的普遍預期收入，調整後稀釋每股收益比普遍預期高出 0.04 美元。考慮到大多數高等教育在新冠疫情時期的表現，這些都是非常出色的結果。最重要的是，GCU Online 連續第三個季度新增入學人數較去年大幅增長，預計這一勢頭將持續到 2023 年第二季度。

I want to begin again by taking a step back and explaining why this is happening and briefly review what has happened since the GCE-GCU transaction took place almost 5 years ago. I've often said it in the past, small and elite has won a day in higher education, especially areas like U.S. News & World Report rankings. In the future, it will be institutions who are large, scalable and flexible in how they offer higher education. We expect to impact adults across the lifespan using technology to build platforms that take into account the life situation of the student and the nature of the content and skills that need to be learned. GCE has invested approximately $300 million, producing its own learning management and administrative system that allows it and its partners to manage over 7,000 full-time and adjunct faculty numbers 112,600 students and over 320 academic programs, emphases and certificates across 4 delivery platforms. This system has automated processes including admissions, transcript collection and evaluation, schedule building, financial aid processing, faculty recruitment, faculty assignment and payroll, content acquisition, assessing learning outcomes, student-teacher placement, counseling and social work internships and the list goes on.

我想重新開始，退一步解釋為什麼會發生這種情況，並簡要回顧一下自近 5 年前 GCE-GCU 交易發生以來所發生的情況。我過去經常說過，小型和精英在高等教育領域贏得了勝利，尤其是在《美國新聞與世界報導》排名等領域。未來，提供高等教育的機構將是規模龐大、可擴展且靈活的機構。我們希望利用技術構建平台來影響成年人的整個生命週期，這些平台考慮到學生的生活狀況以及需要學習的內容和技能的性質。 GCE 已投資約 3 億美元，建立了自己的學習管理和行政系統，使其及其合作夥伴能夠管理 7,000 多名全職和兼職教師、112,600 名學生以及跨 4 個交付平台的 320 多個學術項目、重點和證書。該系統具有自動化流程，包括招生、成績單收集和評估、時間表制定、經濟援助處理、教師招聘、教師分配和工資單、內容獲取、評估學習成果、師生安置、諮詢和社會工作實習等等。 。

The administrative capability of the system allows faculty institutes to focus on the learning, which is still has small group, instructor-led process that is highly interpersonal, collaborative, focused on writing, critical thinking and problem solving and produces outstanding outcomes. GCE currently employs approximately 4,000 full-time professionals and approximately 1,500 student workers as it continues to build out its capabilities to grow faculty, students, programs and delivery platforms for its university partners.

該系統的管理能力使學院能夠專注於學習，該學習仍然是小組、教師主導的過程，具有高度的人際性、協作性，專注於寫作、批判性思維和問題解決，並產生出色的成果。 GCE 目前擁有約 4,000 名全職專業人員和約 1,500 名學生工作者，並不斷增強其能力，為其大學合作夥伴發展教師、學生、項目和交付平台。

Leveraging this infrastructure has allowed GCE's partners to expand programs that are critical to the economy, maintain tuition levels in the period of rapid tuition increases across the country and make access to higher education affordable for all socioeconomic classes of Americans without any burden on the taxpayer. In the almost 5 years since GCE has become a service provider, it has helped its partners accomplish the following: in that time, GCE's Grand Canyon University graduated 130,276 students. 35,815 in education, including 16,537 first-time teachers at the time when teacher shortages have created a national crisis. 37,685 in nursing and health care professions including 1,767 pre-licensure nurses at a time when there was a huge shortage of nurses. 44,863 in College of Humanities and Social Sciences, including thousands in counseling and social work, where there are also huge shortages.

利用這一基礎設施，GCE 的合作夥伴能夠擴大對經濟至關重要的項目，在全國學費快速上漲的時期維持學費水平，並為所有社會經濟階層的美國人提供負擔得起的高等教育機會，而不會給納稅人帶來任何負擔。自GCE成為服務提供商以來的近5年裡，它幫助其合作夥伴完成了以下任務：在此期間，GCE大峽谷大學畢業了130,276名學生。教育領域有 35,815 人，其中包括 16,537 名初任教師，當時教師短缺已造成全國性危機。 37,685名護理和醫療保健專業人士，其中包括1,767名預執照護士，當時護士嚴重短缺。人文社科學院有44,863人，其中諮詢和社會工作人員有數千人，這方面也存在巨大短缺。

The College of Business has become one of the largest business schools in America and has produced 22,151 graduates. The College of Science, Engineering and Technology has grown by 183% and provided 4,539 graduates. The doctoral college, fine arts college and college of theology also continued to grow. The numbers that I have just cited have all happened in the almost 5 years since GCU has become a nonprofit institution and GCE has become an education service provider.

商學院已成為美國最大的商學院之一，已培養了 22,151 名畢業生。科學、工程與技術學院增長了183%，提供了4,539名畢業生。博士學院、美術學院和神學院也不斷發展壯大。我剛才引用的數字都是GCU成為非營利機構、GCE成為教育服務提供商以來近5年的時間裡發生的。

Our partnership with GCU has given us the ability to invest $576 million additional dollars in academic and residential life infrastructure for its ground traditional campus, bringing a total investment to almost $2 billion. Currently, the Kansas is ranked 16 in the country by niche.com. Very importantly, GCE has assisted GCU in opening 138 new academic programs, emphases and certificates during the almost 5 years. 12.9% of the new students enrolled in the first quarter enrolled in these new programs.

我們與 GCU 的合作使我們能夠為其地面傳統校園的學術和住宿生活基礎設施額外投資 5.76 億美元，使總投資達到近 20 億美元。目前，堪薩斯隊在niche.com的全國排名中排名第16位。非常重要的是，近5年來，GCE已協助GCU開設了138個新的學術課程、重點和證書。第一季度新生中，有12.9%就讀於這些新項目。

During this time, GCU has not raised tuition on its ground traditional campus with only nominal increases in certain programs online. As a result, GCU schemes take out less debt than the average state university student. GCU students take out only 50% in parent loan amounts compared to students at our 3 state universities. GCU students have a 1.5% cohort default rate on student loans compared to the almost recently released national average of 2.3% and has a 90/10 calculation of 66.2% for GCU's audited financials.

在此期間，GCU 並未提高其地面傳統校區的學費，僅對某些在線課程進行了名義上的上漲。因此，GCU 計劃承擔的債務比普通州立大學學生少。與我們三所州立大學的學生相比，GCU 學生僅獲得了 50% 的家長貸款。 GCU 學生的學生貸款群體違約率為 1.5%，而最近發布的全國平均水平為 2.3%，根據 90/10 計算，GCU 經審計的財務數據為 66.2%。

In addition GCU has accumulated over $400 million in cash and investment reserves while going through with annual salary increases every year for all faculty and staff. Compared to the declining enrollments and negative financial trends in higher ed across the country that accelerated during COVID, this model has produced significant results for GCU, the state of Arizona and the country.

此外，GCU 還積累了超過 4 億美元的現金和投資儲備，同時每年為所有教職員工進行年薪加薪。與新冠疫情期間全國范圍內高等教育入學率下降和財務狀況惡化的趨勢相比，這種模式為 GCU、亞利桑那州和全國帶來了顯著的成果。

Grand Canyon University was also ranked as the third best employer in Arizona in the 2022 Forbes America's Best Employers By State report. During this same time period, GCE has established 26 additional university partnerships. These partnerships, along with our partnerships with GCU have created 36 locations to produce health care professionals, especially baccalaureate prepared nurses. This is extremely important work since the country is expected to need 1.3 million additional nurses in the next 5 years alone. The number of existing and new partners will eventually lead to 80 locations across the country. Since January 2019, 93,018 students have graduated from our other university partners ABSN or OTA programs. I wanted to include this brief summary because there is currently a lot of discussion about the future of higher education.

在《福布斯》2022 年美國各州最佳雇主報告中，大峽谷大學還被評為亞利桑那州最佳雇主第三名。同期，GCE 還與 26 所大學建立了合作夥伴關係。這些合作夥伴關係以及我們與 GCU 的合作夥伴關係創建了 36 個地點來培養醫療保健專業人員，特別是擁有學士學位的護士。這是一項極其重要的工作，因為預計該國僅在未來 5 年就需要 130 萬名額外護士。現有和新合作夥伴的數量最終將遍布全國 80 個地點。自 2019 年 1 月以來，已有 93,018 名學生從我們其他大學合作夥伴的 ABSN 或 OTA 項目畢業。我想寫下這個簡短的總結，因為目前有很多關於高等教育未來的討論。

Regardless of political or ideological positions, the discussion should focus on where the economy is going and where the new jobs and careers are going to be. Models that can scale and offer opportunities for access to all socioeconomic classes of Americans at no expense to the taxpayers should be supported. Critics point that the revenue share model is bad for universities. The past 2 years have proven them wrong, and we expect that in the next year, this will become even more apparent. In inflationary periods like the one we are currently experiencing or when demand declines as it has, GCE, as a service provider, absorbs the majority of the financial risk and our expertise, technology and processes have allowed our university partners to continue to benefit during these challenging times.

無論政治或意識形態立場如何，討論都應該集中在經濟的發展方向以及新的工作和職業將在哪裡。應該支持那些能夠擴大規模並為美國人所有社會經濟階層提供機會、且無需納稅人承擔任何費用的模型。批評者指出，收入分成模式對大學不利。過去兩年已經證明他們是錯誤的，我們預計明年這一點將變得更加明顯。在我們目前正在經歷的通貨膨脹時期或當需求下降時，GCE 作為服務提供商吸收了大部分財務風險，我們的專業知識、技術和流程使我們的大學合作夥伴能夠在這些時期繼續受益。充滿挑戰的時代。

Now I want to review the 4 pillars or delivery platforms of Grand Canyon Education. First, GCU's traditional campus saw an increase of 8.9% in new students in the fall of 2022 over prior year, an increase of 8% in total ground traditional enrollment and an increase of 10.5% in residential enrollment. Approximately 70% of ground traditional students live on campus. The average incoming GPAs of the 2022, '23 class rose to 3.6%, and the prestigious Honors College has grown 8.3% year-over-year with average incoming GPAs of 4.1.

現在我想回顧一下大峽谷教育的四大支柱或交付平台。首先，GCU 傳統校區 2022 年秋季新生人數比上一年增加了 8.9%，地面傳統入學總人數增加了 8%，住宿入學人數增加了 10.5%。大約 70% 的地面傳統學生住在校園內。 2022 年 23 年級的平均 GPA 上升至 3.6%，著名的榮譽學院同比增長 8.3%，平均 GPA 為 4.1。

Traditional campus spring enrollment was slightly better than expected due to better-than-expected fall to spring retention. These are remarkable results given the fact that undergraduate enrollment declined by 4.2% nationally between fall 2020 and fall 2022, where during the same period of GCU's ground traditional enrollment increased by 18.3%. We expect fall 2023 new enrollments to be between 10,000 and 11,000. The quality and relevancy of GCU's academic programs, the low-class sizes in support of its faculty that has less than a 6% turnover rate, the quality of counseling services of 20 advisory boards with over 500 companies represented who are creating internships and employment opportunities for GCU students in a very affordable tuition, which hasn't been raised in 15 years, are all important contributing factors.

由於春季留校率好於預期，傳統校園春季入學率略好於預期。鑑於 2020 年秋季至 2022 年秋季期間，全國本科生入學人數下降了 4.2%，而同期 GCU 的地面傳統入學人數增加了 18.3%，這些結果非常引人注目。我們預計 2023 年秋季新生入學人數將在 10,000 至 11,000 人之間。 GCU 學術課程的質量和相關性、支持教師流動率低於 6% 的小班級規模、代表 500 多家公司的 20 個諮詢委員會提供的諮詢服務質量，這些委員會正在創造實習和就業機會對於 GCU 學生來說，15 年來沒有提高過的學費非常實惠，都是重要的促成因素。

I also want to mention, unlike the national trend, over 2,600 of the 9,300 fall 2022 new students this year were first-gen college students. The average incoming GPAs of these first-gen students is 3.55 are almost identical to the incoming class overall. These students are largely from the lower socioeconomic strata, but their enrollment at the university because of the very affordable tuition rate, is going directly against the national trend and is a very positive part of the GCU/GCE story.

我還想提一下，與全國趨勢不同，今年9,300名2022年秋季新生中，有超過2,600人是第一代大學生。這些第一代學生的平均入學 GPA 為 3.55，與新生班級的整體成績幾乎相同。這些學生大多來自社會經濟地位較低的階層，但由於學費非常實惠，他們進入大學就讀，這與全國趨勢背道而馳，是 GCU/GCE 故事中非常積極的一部分。

As I said before, in the fall of 2023, we are anticipating between 10,000 and 11,000 new students. We are under construction on 2 new residence halls that will increase the number of beds on campus by 1,500. The number of new students will ultimately depend on the retention of continuing students and their desire to remain on campus and the competitive environment given the trends we have discussed previously, less high school graduates, less graduates directly going to college.

正如我之前所說，到 2023 年秋季，我們預計將有 10,000 至 11,000 名新生。我們正在建設 2 座新宿舍，校園床位數量將增加 1,500 個。新生的數量最終將取決於繼續學習的學生的保留率、他們留在校園的願望以及競爭環境，考慮到我們之前討論過的趨勢，高中畢業生減少，直接進入大學的畢業生減少。

Pillar 2, working adult students attending GCU Online. As with traditional students attending universities across the country, 2021 saw a downturn in working adult students attending online. Unlike with the traditional students attending GCU's campus, we experienced a downturn in online students as well. GCE has worked with GCU on 2 main strategies to combat the downturn, and we are now seeing positive growth again. Number one, we have invested in B2B strategies that are well timed for this post-COVID period. The supply and demand, at least in the short run for educated labor has flipped since the country has reopened. We are working with over 26,850 industry partner locations in K-12 education, health care, financial services, social service agencies, technology and engineering companies, military bases, et cetera, developing custom strategic initiatives that are helping organizations grow their talent from inside. The number of new students that started through these strategies grew 24% over the prior year in the fourth quarter.

第二支柱，就讀 GCU Online 的在職成人學生。與全國各地就讀大學的傳統學生一樣，2021 年在線就讀的在職成人學生人數有所下降。與就讀 GCU 校園的傳統學生不同，我們的在線學生數量也出現了下滑。 GCE 與 GCU 合作制定了兩項主要戰略來應對經濟低迷，現在我們再次看到了積極的增長。第一，我們投資了 B2B 戰略，這些戰略在後新冠疫情時期恰逢其時。自國家重新開放以來，至少在短期內，受過教育的勞動力的供需發生了逆轉。我們正在與 K-12 教育、醫療保健、金融服務、社會服務機構、技術和工程公司、軍事基地等領域的 26,850 多個行業合作夥伴合作，制定定制戰略計劃，幫助組織從內部培養人才。第四季度，通過這些策略開始學習的新生人數比去年同期增長了 24%。

Number two, GCE continues to work with GCU to roll out new and relevant programs. Since the transition almost 5 years ago, GCU has rolled out 138 new programs, emphases and certificates. 12.9% of new students enrolled in these programs in this latest quarter. This has resulted in first quarter new online enrollments growing in the low teens over the prior year, and we are currently projecting new enrollment growth in the second quarter of 2023 to be similar, high single digit to low teens. Based on these trends, we will return to total online growth this quarter. It is important to note that this return to positive growth has been accomplished with no loss of strength in the quality of GCU's online student body, and as a result, no degradation of the quality metrics, including good graduation rates, low cohort default rates and continued low student debt amounts.

第二，GCE 繼續與 GCU 合作推出新的相關項目。自近 5 年前的過渡以來，GCU 已推出 138 個新項目、重點和證書。最近一個季度，12.9% 的新生註冊了這些項目。這導致第一季度的新在線註冊人數比上一年增長了 10% 以下，我們目前預計 2023 年第二季度的新註冊人數增長將與上年類似，為高個位數至低十幾位。基於這些趨勢，我們將在本季度恢復在線總增長。值得注意的是，這種正增長的回歸是在 GCU 在線學生群體質量沒有下降的情況下實現的，因此，質量指標沒有下降，包括良好的畢業率、較低的群體違約率和學生債務金額持續較低。

We anticipate new enrollment growth to again be in the high single digits, low teens in the second quarter, and then we'll begin to return to our long-term objective of mid-single-digit growth in the back half of the year as the comps get much tougher. This should allow us to grow total enrollment on a year-over-year basis in the low to mid-single digits by the end of the year.

我們預計第二季度新入學人數增長將再次達到高個位數、低兩位數，然後我們將在今年下半年開始恢復中個位數增長的長期目標比賽變得更加艱難。這將使我們能夠在年底前將總入學人數同比增長到低至中個位數。

Next, I would like to discuss GCE's third pillar, its health care partnerships. Short term, COVID had a negative impact. Hospitals were extremely busy and preoccupied with COVID patients and many clinical placement opportunities were canceled.

接下來，我想討論 GCE 的第三個支柱，即醫療保健合作夥伴關係。短期來看，新冠疫情產生了負面影響。醫院非常繁忙，全神貫注於新冠肺炎患者，許多臨床實習機會被取消。

Despite these very significant challenges, many instructional assignments, requiring one-on-one clinical interaction in the hospital were replaced by simulations. Some of our university partners requested that we reduced the cohort sizes due to concerns about the lack of clinical capacity and some of the new sites that we hope to open, especially in large markets have been pushed back to the fall of '23 or 2024.

儘管存在這些非常重大的挑戰，許多需要在醫院進行一對一臨床互動的教學任務被模擬所取代。由於擔心缺乏臨床能力，我們的一些大學合作夥伴要求我們減少隊列規模，並且我們希望開設的一些新站點（尤其是在大型市場）已被推遲到 23 年秋季或 2024 年。

Although positive signs are emerging on this front, the tight labor market has had a significant impact on the type of student interested in recurring into nursing. When we acquired Orbis in 2019, their partnerships were predominantly focused on post-baccalaureate students, those that had already completed a bachelor's program, and having a completed bachelor's degree was a requirement to start in the ABSN program.

儘管這方面正在出現積極的跡象，但緊張的勞動力市場對有興趣重新進入護理行業的學生類型產生了重大影響。當我們在 2019 年收購 Orbis 時，他們的合作夥伴關係主要集中在學士後學生，即那些已經完成學士學位課程的學生，而擁有完整的學士學位是開始參加 ABSN 項目的要求。

Students that did not have a bachelor's degree were turned away. Today, the majority of the students interested in recurring into nursing have not completed a bachelor's degree. Thus, we have been working with our partners and their state nursing boards to adjust these programs to allow students with 60-plus college credit to gain admissions into the ABSN program. In addition, in partnership with GCU, we have created a much less expensive and more efficient way for these students or students that do have a bachelor's degree, but don't have the science prerequisites to complete the coursework necessary to start in the ABSN program. These challenges have in the short run caused some of our mature locations that were at capacity to shrink and some of our newer locations to not grow as fast as we would have expected while other mature locations remain at or near capacity and some newer locations are meeting our new enrollment expectations.

沒有學士學位的學生被拒之門外。如今，大多數有興趣重新進入護理行業的學生尚未完成學士學位。因此，我們一直在與我們的合作夥伴及其州護理委員會合作調整這些項目，以允許擁有 60 多個大學學分的學生獲得 ABSN 項目的錄取。此外，我們與 GCU 合作，為這些學生或擁有學士學位但不具備完成ABSN 項目所需課程所需的科學先決條件的學生創建了一種更便宜、更有效的方式。這些挑戰在短期內導致我們的一些成熟地點的產能萎縮，而我們一些較新的地點的增長速度無法達到我們預期，而其他成熟地點仍保持或接近產能，而一些較新的地點正在滿足我們新的入學期望。

We believe that these strategies will reaccelerate growth. As we work through this, we will be much more selective in the new locations that we open. We plan to open 2 new site with GCU in the Phoenix area in the fall of 2023. I am hopeful that we'll be plan the new site with a new partner in Southern California in the fall as well, although permitting issues continue to hold up our ability to start construction on that site. We also plan to open a couple of smaller sites with new partners that were committed to previously.

我們相信這些戰略將重新加速增長。當我們解決這個問題時，我們將更加有選擇性地開設新地點。我們計劃於 2023 年秋季與 GCU 在菲尼克斯地區開設 2 個新站點。我希望我們也能在秋季與南加州的新合作夥伴一起規劃新站點，儘管許可問題仍然存在提高我們在該地點開始施工的能力。我們還計劃與之前承諾的新合作夥伴一起開設幾個較小的網站。

I am very pleased to announce that GCU locations grew 27.2% year-over-year from 283 to 360 students. It's really important to get with ultimately, like 40 of our 80 locations to be GCU locations. This relationship is good financially for GCU, but it is also good for GCE given GCU's national footprint and brand recognition, the excellence of its nursing program and its proven ability to scale.

我非常高興地宣布，GCU 分校的學生人數同比增長 27.2%，從 283 名增加到 360 名。最終達成一致非常重要，例如我們 80 個地點中的 40 個將成為 GCU 地點。這種關係對於 GCU 來說是有利的，而且對於 GCE 來說也是有利的，因為 GCU 的全國影響力和品牌知名度、卓越的護理項目以及經過驗證的擴展能力。

As with GCU's traditional campus, the long-term environment is very positive for these GCE health care partnerships for the following reasons: number one, the country needs 1.3 million additional nurses in the next 5 years alone. Nursing programs are very expensive to operate and given the financial pressures facing many universities, they will be unable to invest the dollars it will take to scale the programs.

與 GCU 的傳統校園一樣，長期環境對這些 GCE 醫療保健合作夥伴關係非常有利，原因如下：第一，該國僅在未來 5 年內就需要 130 萬名額外護士。護理項目的運營成本非常昂貴，而且考慮到許多大學面臨的財務壓力，他們將無法投資擴大項目規模所需的資金。

Number two, GCE has the capital to invest in the continued build-out to eventually 80 locations. Number three, in addition to the runway of 80 locations, up from 35 locations currently, our enrollment budget for this coming year is only 50% of the actual spots that exist today. The 50% shortfall is partly due to the lack of efficient and highly supportive prerequisite course environments. Regulatory issues creating slowdowns in opening of planned locations and lack of clinical placements due to COVID issues.

第二，GCE 有資本投資持續擴建，最終將開設 80 個地點。第三，除了 80 個地點的跑道（目前有 35 個地點）之外，我們明年的招生預算僅為目前實際席位的 50%。 50% 的缺口部分是由於缺乏高效且高度支持的先決課程環境。由於新冠疫情問題，監管問題導致計劃地點的開業放緩以及臨床安置的缺乏。

There are now over 12,00 students in GCU's accelerated online science courses, preparing to earn spots in 1 of our 36 locations. These are 8-week courses taught mainly by full-time faculty members and provide tremendous academic support and services. There are multiple start opportunities on an every month basis. We expect a 1200 number to continue to grow and be a leading indicator of our ability to reestablish growth on the hybrid campuses. GCE is working hard in investing in new enrollment, simulation, virtual reality and prerequisite strategies to, in the future, fill all the spots that are available.

現在有超過 12,00 名學生參加 GCU 的在線科學加速課程，準備在我們 36 個地點之一中獲得名額。這些課程為期 8 週，主要由全職教師教授，並提供巨大的學術支持和服務。每個月都有多個啟動機會。我們預計 1200 人的數量將繼續增長，並成為我們在混合園區重建增長能力的領先指標。 GCE 正在努力投資新的招生、模擬、虛擬現實和先決條件策略，以在未來填補所有可用的空缺。

This is a transitional year for the health care partnerships. However, there's a 10-year runway that is very promising. It creates a winning scenario for students that want into a promising career, health care providers desperately needing professional nurses and universities who want a low-risk way to help solve the nursing shortage, while at the same time, creating additional revenue streams.

今年是醫療保健夥伴關係的過渡年。然而，有一條10年的跑道非常有前途。它為想要從事有前途職業的學生、迫切需要專業護士的醫療保健提供者和希望以低風險方式幫助解決護理短缺問題的大學創造了一個成功的場景，同時創造了額外的收入來源。

Last, we continue to see good results in our fourth pillar certificate program. We are extremely excited because these programs are desperately needed in higher education today. This past September, we launched a certificate program in partnership with GCU's newly formed institute for workforce development. This certificate is referring to students for a professional electricians apprenticeship program. This is a 16 credit hour one semester program heavily focused on the mathematical concepts necessary to prepare for our career as an electrician.

最後，我們的第四支柱證書計劃繼續取得良好成果。我們非常興奮，因為當今的高等教育迫切需要這些項目。去年九月，我們與 GCU 新成立的勞動力發展研究所合作推出了證書計劃。該證書適用於專業電工學徒計劃的學生。這是一學期 16 學分的課程，重點關注為電工職業生涯做好準備所需的數學概念。

This program has been designed with a major industry partner who is offering apprenticeships to the student successfully completing this program. This partner needs 1,000 electricians for their business in Arizona alone. This partner also indicates that the country is short of minimum 100,000 electricians necessary to complete the building projects currently underway. Last fall, 300 students applied for this program, and we accepted 40 into the program. 39 of the 40 students completed their programs successfully and feedback we've received from our industry partner is very positive. An additional 200 submitted applications for the spring semester and we accepted another 40 in the spring. 35 of those students completed their programs successfully. Once the concept is proven, there is a potential to scale this program in a significant way. We have had many additional industry partners who have expressed interest in participation.

該計劃是與主要行業合作夥伴共同設計的，該合作夥伴為成功完成該計劃的學生提供學徒機會。該合作夥伴僅在亞利桑那州就需要 1,000 名電工來開展業務。該合作夥伴還表示，該國至少缺乏 100,000 名電工來完成目前正在進行的建築項目。去年秋天，有 300 名學生申請了該項目，我們錄取了 40 名學生。 40 名學生中有 39 名成功完成了他們的課程，我們從行業合作夥伴那裡收到的反饋非常積極。春季學期另外提交了 200 份申請，我們在春季又接受了 40 份申請。其中 35 名學生成功完成了課程。一旦這一概念得到證實，就有可能大幅擴展該計劃。我們還有許多其他行業合作夥伴表示有興趣參與。

Service revenue was $250.1 million for the first quarter of 2023, an increase of $6 million or 2.5% as compared to $244.1 million for the first quarter of 2022. The increase year-over-year in service revenue was primarily due to an increase in GCU traditional campus enrollments and an increase in revenue pushed year-over-year, partially offset by a decrease in hybrid enrollments, primarily students, universities, partners, occupational therapy assistance program.

2023 年第一季度的服務收入為 2.501 億美元，比 2022 年第一季度的 2.441 億美元增加了 600 萬美元，增幅為 2.5%。服務收入同比增長主要是由於 GCU 的增加傳統校園入學人數和收入的增長逐年推動，但部分被混合入學人數的減少所抵消，主要是學生、大學、合作夥伴、職業治療援助計劃。

Operating income for the 3 months ended December 31, 2022, was $74.5 million, a decrease of $3 million as compared to $77.5 million for the same period in 2022 as we continue to invest to meet our client's enrollment goals. The operating margin for the 3 months ended March 31, 2022, was 29.8% compared to the 31.7% for the same period in 2022. Net income decreased 2.6% to $59.6 million for the first quarter of 2023 compared to $58.1 million for the same period in 2022.

截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的三個月營業收入為 7,450 萬美元，比 2022 年同期的 7,750 萬美元減少了 300 萬美元，因為我們繼續投資以滿足客戶的入學目標。截至 2022 年 3 月 31 日止三個月的營業利潤率為 29.8%，而 2022 年同期為 31.7%。2023 年第一季度淨利潤下降 2.6%，至 5,960 萬美元，而同期淨利潤為 5,810 萬美元2022年。

GAAP diluted income per share for the 3 months ended December 31, 2023 is $1.94. As adjusted, non-GAAP diluted income per share for the 3 months ended December 31, 2022, is $2, $0.4 over consensus estimates.

截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日止 3 個月的 GAAP 攤薄每股收益為 1.94 美元。調整後，截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日止 3 個月的非 GAAP 攤薄每股收益為 2 美元，比共識預期高出 0.4 美元。

With that, I would like to turn it over to Dan Bachus, our CFO, to give a little more color on our 2023 first quarter, talk about changes in the income statement, balance sheet and other items as well as to discuss the updated 2023 guidance.

說到這裡，我想把它交給我們的首席財務官 Dan Bachus，為我們的 2023 年第一季度提供更多的信息，討論損益表、資產負債表和其他項目的變化，以及討論更新的 2023 年指導。

Thanks, Brian. Included in our Form 8-K filed with the SEC, we have included non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted income per share for the 3 months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022. The non-GAAP amounts exclude the tax-affected amount of the amortization of intangible assets of $2.1 million in the first quarters of both 2023 and 2022 and the tax-affected amount of the losses on fixed asset disposal of $0.1 million and $0.7 million for the 3 months ended March 31, 2023 and '22, respectively. We believe the non-GAAP financial information allows investors to develop a more meaningful understanding of the company's performance over time. As adjusted, non-GAAP diluted income per share for the 3 months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022 is $2 and $1.72, respectively.

謝謝，布萊恩。我們向 SEC 提交的 8-K 表格中包含截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日和 2022 年 3 月的非 GAAP 淨利潤和非 GAAP 稀釋每股收益。非 GAAP 金額不包括受稅收影響的金額2023年和2022年第一季度無形資產攤銷金額為210萬美元，截至2023年3月31日和2022年3月31日止三個月的固定資產處置損失受稅收影響金額分別為10萬美元和70萬美元， 分別。我們相信，非公認會計準則財務信息可以讓投資者對公司的長期業績有更有意義的了解。調整後，截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日和 2022 年 3 月 31 日的三個月的非 GAAP 攤薄每股收益分別為 2 美元和 1.72 美元。

Service revenue was higher than our expectations in the first quarter of 2023 due to the higher-than-expected ancillary revenues at GCU and a higher-than-expected number of students in the nursing prerequisite courses. Other online and hybrid revenues were in line with our expectations. The ground enrollment growth rate continues to be impacted by a decline in professional study students. The hybrid enrollment growth rate is being impacted on a year-over-year basis due to the timing of site openings, a 19.9% year-over-year decline in occupational therapy assistant enrollment and a decline year-over-year in the enrollment at some of the mature sites due to challenges previously discussed.

由於 GCU 的輔助收入高於預期以及護理先修課程的學生人數高於預期，2023 年第一季度的服務收入高於我們的預期。其他在線和混合收入符合我們的預期。地面入學增長率繼續受到專業學習學生數量下降的影響。由於站點開放時間、職業治療助理入學人數同比下降 19.9% 以及職業治療助理入學人數同比下降，混合入學增長率受到同比影響。由於前面討論的挑戰，一些成熟的站點。

Revenue per student continues to grow on a year-over-year basis, primarily due to the service revenue impact of the growth in the GCU traditional campus enrollment between years, which has a higher revenue per student due to room, board and other ancillary revenues and the higher revenue per student at off-campus classroom and laboratory site. Service revenue pursuant for hybrid, ABSN students generates a significantly higher revenue per student than we earn on the other students as these agreements generally provide us with a higher revenue share percentage, partners have higher tuition rates, and the majority of their students take more credits on average per semester as they are in accelerated program.

每個學生的收入繼續逐年增長，主要是由於多年來 GCU 傳統校園入學人數增長對服務收入的影響，由於食宿和其他輔助收入，每個學生的收入更高校外教室和實驗室的每位學生收入更高。根據混合型ABSN學生的服務收入，每個學生產生的收入明顯高於我們從其他學生身上獲得的收入，因為這些協議通常為我們提供更高的收入分成百分比，合作夥伴的學費更高，而且他們的大多數學生獲得更多學分平均每學期，因為他們在加速課程中。

The increase in revenue per student was negatively impacted by year-over-year differences in the timing of the GCU traditional campus's spring semester, such the $4.5 million shifted from the first quarter to the second quarter as compared to last year.

學生人均收入的增長受到 GCU 傳統校區春季學期時間安排的同比差異的負面影響，例如與去年相比，450 萬美元從第一季度轉移到第二季度。

Our operating margin was higher than our expectations, primarily due to the higher-than-expected revenue. As I discussed on prior quarter earnings calls, we have been aggressively hiring in which headcount had mostly been flat since March 2020 and to meet our partners' expected future growth, which is driving increased compensation costs and technology and academic services and counseling services and support cost.

我們的營業利潤率高於預期，主要是由於收入高於預期。正如我在上一季度的財報電話會議上所討論的那樣，我們一直在積極招聘，自 2020 年 3 月以來，員工人數基本持平，以滿足我們合作夥伴的預期未來增長，這推動了薪酬成本以及技術和學術服務以及諮詢服務和支持的增加成本。

We also plan for a significant increase year-over-year in travel and employee benefits as those amounts were significantly lower than pre-COVID levels in the prior year. We also plan for increased clinical costs at off-campus classroom and laboratory sites due to the nursing shortage. This spending has generally remained in line with our expectations. Our effective tax rate for the first quarter of 2023 was 22.3% compared to 25.2% in the first quarter of 2022 and our guidance of 22.3%. The decrease in the effective tax rate year-over-year is due to excess tax benefit of $0.9 million in the first quarter of 2023 as compared to $0.1 million in the first quarter of 2022.

我們還計劃大幅增加差旅和員工福利，因為這些金額顯著低於上一年新冠疫情爆發前的水平。由於護士短缺，我們還計劃增加校外教室和實驗室的臨床費用。這一支出總體上符合我們的預期。我們 2023 年第一季度的有效稅率為 22.3%，而 2022 年第一季度為 25.2%，我們的指導值為 22.3%。有效稅率同比下降的原因是 2023 年第一季度的超額稅收優惠為 90 萬美元，而 2022 年第一季度為 10 萬美元。

The 2022 effective tax rate was also unfavorably impacted by higher state income taxes. And in 2023, the effective rate -- effective tax rate was favorably impacted by state tax refunds. We repurchased 309,978 shares of our common stock in the first quarter of 2023 at a cost of approximately $34.9 million and another 96,547 shares since March 31, 2023 in the purchase. We have $149.7 million remaining available as of today under our share repurchase authorization. The Board of the company intends to continue using a significant portion of its cash flows from operations to repurchase its shares but share repurchases in future years will be less than in 2021 and 2022 as we have utilized all the proceeds from the repayment as a secured note during the past few years.

2022 年的有效稅率也受到國家所得稅上漲的不利影響。 2023年，有效稅率受到國家退稅的有利影響。我們在 2023 年第一季度以約 3,490 萬美元的成本回購了 309,978 股普通股，並自 2023 年 3 月 31 日以來又回購了 96,547 股。截至今天，我們的股票回購授權尚有 1.497 億美元可用。公司董事會打算繼續使用運營現金流的很大一部分來回購股票，但未來幾年的股票回購將少於 2021 年和 2022 年，因為我們已將所有還款收益用作擔保票據在過去的幾年裡。

Turning to the balance sheet and cash flows. Total unrestricted cash and short-term investments on March 31, 2023, were $194.5 million. GCE CapEx in the first quarter of 2023, including CapEx for new off-campus classroom and laboratory sites is approximately $8.6 million or 3.4% of service rev. We expect CapEx for 2023 to be similar to 2022 at between $30 million and $35 million.

轉向資產負債表和現金流量。截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日，無限制現金和短期投資總額為 1.945 億美元。 2023 年第一季度的 GCE 資本支出（包括新的校外教室和實驗室場地的資本支出）約為 860 萬美元，佔服務收入的 3.4%。我們預計 2023 年的資本支出將與 2022 年類似，在 3000 萬美元至 3500 萬美元之間。

I'd like to provide color on the updated guidance we have provided in our 8-K filed today. As a reminder, the guidance that we have provided in the outlook section of our 8-K filed today is GAAP net income and diluted income per share with component to adjusted GAAP amounts to non-GAAP as adjusted net income and non-GAAP as adjusted diluted income per share and we will continue to provide both GAAP net income and diluted income per share and the non-GAAP amounts with a reconciliation between the 2 when we report actual results. We have updated full year 2023 guidance to include the first quarter revenue and earnings [peak] and are reaffirming the second, third and fourth quarters previously provided guidance.

我想對我們今天在 8-K 歸檔中提供的更新指南進行說明。提醒一下，我們在今天提交的 8-K 展望部分中提供的指引是 GAAP 淨利潤和稀釋每股收益，其中調整後 GAAP 金額為非 GAAP 調整後淨利潤和非 GAAP 調整後稀釋每股收益，當我們報告實際結果時，我們將繼續提供 GAAP 淨利潤和稀釋每股收益以及非 GAAP 金額以及兩者之間的調節表。我們更新了 2023 年全年指引，將第一季度收入和收益[峰值]納入其中，並重申之前提供的第二、第三和第四季度指引。

A couple of reminders. Timing differences in the start and end of the traditional campus semester pushed $4.5 million for Q1 2023 to Q2 2023 in comparison to 2022 and $1.3 million from Q4 2023 to Q3 2023 in comparison to 2020. We anticipate that new online enrollments will be up year-over-year in the high single digits to low teens in the second quarter. As a reminder, the comps get much more difficult in the second half as new enrollments were up year-over-year in the mid-teens in the third and fourth quarters of 2022. Thus, our guidance provides a wide range of potential outcomes in the second half of between low and high single-digit growth.

有幾點提醒。與 2022 年相比，傳統校園學期開始和結束的時間差異使 2023 年第一季度至 2023 年第二季度的收入增加了 450 萬美元，與 2020 年相比，2023 年第四季度至 2023 年第三季度的收入增加了 130 萬美元。第二季度同比增長從高個位數到低兩位數。提醒一下，下半年的競爭會變得更加困難，因為 2022 年第三和第四季度的新入學人數同比增長了十幾歲。因此，我們的指導提供了廣泛的潛在結果下半年介於低位和高個位數之間的增長。

Given that our long-term objectives are to grow new enrollments in the mid-single digits, the midpoint of this range would meet our long-term objectives. Based on this, we anticipate that total online enrollment will end the year with a low- to mid-single-digit year-over-growth.

鑑於我們的長期目標是使新入學人數增長到中個位數，該範圍的中點將滿足我們的長期目標。基於此，我們預計今年年底在線註冊總人數將實現低至中個位數的同比增長。

As Brian discussed earlier, hybrid growth will remain below our long-term objectives during the first half of 2023, but we're hopeful that we will start to see some acceleration beginning in the fall semester due to new site openings and the impact of the prerequisite initiative on the number of eligible students that can start in our partners' programs. We estimate the effective tax rate in the last 3 quarters of 2023 will be 24.9%, 24.9% and 24%.

正如 Brian 之前討論的那樣，2023 年上半年混合增長仍將低於我們的長期目標，但我們希望，由於新站點的開設以及新站點的影響，我們將在秋季學期開始看到一些加速。關於可以參加我們合作夥伴項目的合格學生數量的先決條件倡議。我們預計2023年最後三個季度的有效稅率將為24.9%、24.9%和24%。

The effective tax rate will be higher in 2023 than in 2022 because of the impact of state income taxes as revenues continue to grow at the offsite locations outside of Arizona, driving our tax rate increase. These estimates do not assume a contribution in lieu of state income taxes, but if one is made, that will increase G&A expense in the third quarter and decrease the effective tax rate in the second half of the year.

由於州所得稅的影響，2023 年的有效稅率將高於 2022 年，因為亞利桑那州以外的異地收入持續增長，推動我們的稅率上升。這些估計並未假設用捐款代替州所得稅，但如果這樣做，將增加第三季度的一般管理費用，並降低下半年的有效稅率。

Assuming that a contribution of $5 million is made in July of 2023, as was made in July of 2022, this would decreased net income by $1.3 million in the third quarter of 2023 and increased net income by $1.3 million in the fourth quarter. But again, no decision has been made yet on this contribution. Our weighted average share guidance assumes that we purchased most of the remaining amount authorized by our Board evenly over the rest of the year.

假設 2023 年 7 月捐款 500 萬美元，與 2022 年 7 月一樣，這將使 2023 年第三季度的淨利潤減少 130 萬美元，第四季度的淨利潤增加 130 萬美元。但同樣，尚未就這筆捐款做出任何決定。我們的加權平均股票指引假設我們在今年剩餘時間內均勻購買了董事會授權的大部分剩餘金額。

The Board continues to authorize the repurchase of shares as it leaves the stock remains undervalued based on the metrics that it uses to evaluate, including the ratio of enterprise value to adjusted EBITDA and the free cash flow yield rather than the multiples of other education companies, as although we can be viewed as being in the same sector, there are a few, if any, appropriate comps. On an enterprise value to adjusted EBITDA basis, the stock is currently trading at roughly 12.5%, which is less than the recent S&P average of 16.4%.

董事會繼續授權回購股票，因為根據其用於評估的指標，包括企業價值與調整後 EBITDA 的比率和自由現金流收益率，而不是其他教育公司的倍數，該股票仍然被低估，雖然我們可以被視為處於同一領域，但也有一些（如果有的話）合適的比較。以調整後 EBITDA 為基礎的企業價值計算，該股目前的交易價格約為 12.5%，低於標準普爾近期 16.4% 的平均水平。

The average free cash flow yield for the S&P 500 of $2.8 million, whereas the company's free cash flow yield is approximately 5.5%. The guidance we have provided does not include any reduction in revenue or expense associated with the Dear Colleague Letter issued last year that I discussed on previous call. However, it's likely that a number of our university partners contracts will be adjusted prior to the fall term such that we will no longer reimburse them for certain costs and thus will be reducing our revenue shift.

標準普爾 500 指數的平均自由現金流收益率為 280 萬美元，而該公司的自由現金流收益率約為 5.5%。我們提供的指導不包括與我在上次電話會議中討論的去年發布的《親愛的同事信》相關的任何收入或費用減少。然而，我們的一些大學合作夥伴合同可能會在秋季學期之前進行調整，這樣我們將不再償還他們的某些費用，從而減少我們的收入轉移。

As a result, we do anticipate the fall term revenue and expense will be reduced, but cannot currently quantify these amounts. It is important to note that these changes made will not have a material impact on revenues and operating profit as the Dear Colleague letter does not impact our relationship with GCU as GCU provides all faculty for their course, pace them and receive little or to no reimbursement from us or any other outside sources for the faculty costs and because the contract modifications are being made to make both parties' role.

因此，我們確實預計秋季收入和支出將會減少，但目前無法量化這些金額。值得注意的是，這些變化不會對收入和營業利潤產生重大影響，因為親愛的同事的信不會影響我們與 GCU 的關係，因為 GCU 為所有教員提供課程、進度安排，並且收到很少或什至沒有報銷來自我們或任何其他外部來源的教員費用，並且因為正在對合同進行修改以發揮雙方的作用。

Last, as I get this question often, I wanted to highlight that the named executive officers have signed extensions of their employment agreement. Brian's agreement has been extended through June 2028. I'll now turn the call over to the moderator so we can answer questions.

最後，由於我經常收到這個問題，我想強調的是，指定的高管已經簽署了僱傭協議的延期。 Brian 的協議已延長至 2028 年 6 月。我現在將通話轉交給主持人，以便我們回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Jeff Meuler with Baird.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Jeff Meuler 和 Baird 的對話。

Yes. For the hybrid pre-req initiative, I guess, have you had any students graduate from that program at this point? When do they apply for the ABSN experience, just like how much of a lag between completing the pre-reqs and enrolling an ABSN would you expect?

是的。對於混合先決條件計劃，我想，目前有學生從該計劃畢業嗎？他們什麼時候申請ABSN 體驗，就像您預計完成先決條件和註冊ABSN 之間會有多少滯後一樣？

Well, we -- when they express interest in our program, and we determine they need pre-requisite courses, how many there are that they need to take, we immediately begin a schedule in terms of how they'll transition to the ABSN program. So depending upon how many courses they need to take will determine the schedule, will determine when they'll finish their last course and then for most of them, they will begin very soon after that, attending one of the sites that they selected even before they start their pre-reqs.

好吧，當他們對我們的計劃感興趣，並且我們確定他們需要先修課程，他們需要學習多少門課程時，我們立即開始製定他們如何過渡到 ABSN 計劃的時間表。因此，根據他們需要參加的課程數量來確定時間表，將確定他們何時完成最後一門課程，然後對於大多數人來說，他們將在那之後很快開始，參加他們之前選擇的網站之一他們開始提出他們的先決條件。

And so for many of the students, they will be lucky to site very near their home. For some, they'll actually select a site that they'll move to but all that work is done upfront. The evaluation of their transcripts is done and then we determine what courses they need. Course schedule is built. We don't -- we have a lot of students completing courses. They're completing courses at a very, very high rate, they are one that we're very satisfied with. We haven't had a student complete them all and go into the -- maybe [different] program yet, but we're very close to that happen.

因此，對於許多學生來說，他們會很幸運能在離家很近的地方上課。對於某些人來說，他們實際上會選擇一個要遷移到的站點，但所有工作都是預先完成的。對他們的成績單進行評估，然後我們確定他們需要什麼課程。課程表已製定。我們沒有——我們有很多學生完成課程。他們以非常非常高的速度完成課程，我們對他們非常滿意。我們還沒有一個學生完成所有這些並進入——也許是[不同的]項目，但我們非常接近這種情況的發生。

And so the preliminary results have been very good, and I can't underestimate how important that is. When you apply to get into a nursing program and it's determined you don't have the prerequisites necessary, sorry to say this, but if they refer you to a community college, that could literally be a 2- or 3-year time frame before you're going to get the courses you need. And if you don't select that route, the other routes are extremely expensive. And so what we realized is that you can't expect a student to take out a massive loan to get the pre-reqs done, not knowing whether that will be successful and they'll actually get into an ABSN program. On the other hand if we get students into an ABSN program, if we get them to the door, there is a universal 90% completion rate and a greater than 90% first-time pass rate on the entrance exam.

所以初步結果非常好，我不能低估它的重要性。當您申請進入護理項目並且確定您不具備必要的先決條件時，很遺憾地說，但是如果他們將您轉介到社區大學，那麼實際上可能需要 2 或 3 年的時間範圍您將獲得您需要的課程。而且如果你不選擇這條路線，其他路線的費用都非常昂貴。所以我們意識到，你不能指望學生申請大量貸款來完成先決條件，而不知道這是否會成功，他們是否會真正進入ABSN項目。另一方面，如果我們讓學生進入 ABSN 項目，如果我們讓他們入學，普遍的完成率是 90%，入學考試的首次通過率超過 90%。

And so we absolutely believe that a centralized process no matter where you are in the country to enter into the correct pre-req courses, one at a time, 8 weeks long, lots of faculty in tutorial support will put us in a position to create a pool of those graduates who could step into the ABSN program, and we believe that's the key to reaccelerate the growth. And obviously, each quarter, we'll be providing updates on that. But what we're experiencing at this point is that the students are doing well in the course work, they're getting a tremendous amount of support and I think this is by far the most important part of adjusting to this market change.

因此，我們絕對相信，無論您在國內哪個地方，只要有一個集中的流程來參加正確的預科課程，一次一門，為期 8 週，有大量教員提供輔導支持，將使我們能夠創造一批可以進入ABSN項目的畢業生，我們相信這是重新加速增長的關鍵。顯然，每個季度我們都會提供相關更新。但我們目前所經歷的是，學生們在課程中表現出色，他們得到了巨大的支持，我認為這是迄今為止適應這一市場變化的最重要部分。

And when you go back to the change, it's just the supply and demand in the labor pool. When you've got a $60,000 or $70,000 a year job, and you've already completed your degree, you've already taken out sizable amounts of loans to do that, it's very difficult for that person to decide if they're going to quit their job, invest $50,000 to $60,000 and re-career in the nursing to make $75,000 or $80,000. And so there's no lack of interest in people wanting to be nurses, it's just that the market now has shifted to people who haven't already taken out massive amounts of loans to complete the degree, and then are faced with doing that second time.

當你回到變化時，你會發現這只是勞動力庫中的供給和需求。當你有一份年薪 60,000 美元或 70,000 美元的工作，並且你已經完成了學位，你已經為此獲得了大量貸款，那麼那個人很難決定他們是否要這樣做辭掉工作，投資 50,000 美元到 60,000 美元，然後重新從事護理工作，賺取 75,000 美元或 80,000 美元。因此，想要成為護士的人並不缺乏興趣，只是市場現在已經轉向那些尚未獲得大量貸款來完成學位的人，然後面臨著第二次這樣做。

Got it. And then for the fall 23 ground campus enrollment. I just want to make sure I'm interpreting the comments correctly. You gave us the new starts. I feel like there was a little bit of a caveat 2 to 3 months ago about registrations tracking behind. I guess visibility on that front and trends on that front improved. And then this quarter, I don't know if this was a new caveat or not, but I thought there was a reference to like some uncertainty around retention of students from spring to fall and increased competition. So is there any reason to believe that retention could be lower this year?

知道了。然後進行23年秋季地面校園招生。我只是想確保我正確解釋了這些評論。您給了我們新的開始。我覺得 2 到 3 個月前有一些關於註冊追踪的警告。我想這方面的可見性和趨勢有所改善。然後這個季度，我不知道這是否是一個新的警告，但我認為有人提到了從春季到秋季學生保留率和競爭加劇的一些不確定性。那麼有什麼理由相信今年的留存率可能會更低呢？

No, retention is good. Retention is very good. We will come in with more than we budgeted for in terms of returning students to the campus. So that's really good news.

不，保留性很好。保留度非常好。在讓學生返回校園方面，我們將提供超出預算的資金。這確實是個好消息。

On the other front, things have changed dramatically in higher education with regards to traditional students. This has been coming, but COVID accelerated it. The reason we're saying between 10,000 and 11,000 students, and that's a wide range for us. Usually, we can target the number and be much closer. Our applications are up significantly. Our campus visitations or one-on-one appointments with students and parents are up. What's lagging behind is the student's commitment to register.

另一方面，高等教育中傳統學生的情況發生了巨大變化。這本來就已經到來，但新冠疫情加速了它。我們之所以說有 10,000 到 11,000 名學生，這對我們來說範圍很廣。通常，我們可以瞄準這個數字並且更加接近。我們的申請量顯著增加。我們的校園參觀或與學生和家長的一對一預約已經增加。落後的是學生註冊的承諾。

So they're not saying they're not coming, they're not committing to register. We have had a number of institutions visit us, well-branded private universities visited us within the last couple of months and explore potential relationships because they're looking at their fall numbers and they're seeing, I'm not going to say Armageddon, but this -- what happened last year is probably going to be worse than this year for many institutions. Students and families know that they're in a driver's seat now. Unlike in the past where you try to apply the schools you're interested in, helping to get an acceptance and celebrate that, right now, what they know is that the thing is flipped and if they hold out, people are making increased offers in order to get them to attend their campus.

所以他們並不是說他們不會來，他們也沒有承諾登記。在過去的幾個月裡，我們有許多機構來訪，知名的私立大學來訪，並探索潛在的關係，因為他們正在研究秋季數據，他們看到，我不會說世界末日，但是對於許多機構來說，去年發生的事情可能會比今年更糟糕。學生和家庭知道他們現在處於主導地位。與過去不同的是，你試圖申請你感興趣的學校，幫助獲得錄取並慶祝，現在，他們知道事情已經翻轉了，如果他們堅持下去，人們就會增加錄取通知書為了讓他們去他們的校園。

We're not doing that. We don't think we have to do that. And we're still positive about how we fit into this whole situation because of our low tuition rate. Parents and families and students are actually absolutely questioning the value of higher education if it requires $200,000 worth of debt or even $100,000 if you would attend state university. We think that as they get letters and deals submitted by other institutions, ours as they have in the past, will look very favorable in addition to the fact that we've got over 40% of our students graduated in 3 years because of our dual credit programs and all of that.

我們不會那樣做。我們認為我們不必這樣做。由於我們的學費較低，我們仍然對如何適應整個情況持積極態度。如果高等教育需要 20 萬美元的債務，甚至上州立大學需要 10 萬美元，那麼家長、家庭和學生實際上絕對會質疑高等教育的價值。我們認為，當他們收到其他機構提交的信件和交易時，我們的機構就像他們過去一樣，看起來會非常有利，而且我們有超過 40% 的學生在 3 年內畢業，因為我們的雙學位信貸計劃等等。

So we still think we -- even though the trend is if you're high school graduates, you're (inaudible) loan in college. If you're questioning the value of higher ed, this is a very good investment because number one, you're going to graduate with very little debt. Number two, you're going to graduate in less years. And so it's a much lower risk proposition if you're questioning that. So we are hanging in there and expect that we'll still do real well in the end as compared to others.

所以我們仍然認為，即使趨勢是如果你是高中畢業生，你就可以（聽不清）貸款上大學。如果你質疑高等教育的價值，這是一項非常好的投資，因為第一，你畢業時幾乎沒有債務。第二，你將在更短的時間內畢業。因此，如果您對此提出質疑，那麼這是一個風險低得多的提議。所以我們會堅持下去，並期望與其他人相比，我們最終仍然會做得很好。

And just to clarify, the caveat, Jeff, you might recall this, we had a similar issue last year, but the university built 1,500 new beds. And if retention rates were flat as a percentage to last year, we could recruit for them 1,500 additional new students or 1,300, I think, roughly, additional new students this year than last year. Based on current registrations for continuing students, they're taking up the entire 1,500 additional beds.

澄清一下，傑夫，你可能還記得這一點，我們去年也遇到過類似的問題，但大學建造了 1,500 個新床位。如果保留率與去年持平，我們可以為他們招收 1,500 名額外的新生，或者我認為今年比去年大約增加 1,300 名新生。根據目前繼續學習的學生註冊情況，他們將佔用全部 1,500 個額外床位。

Now with that said, once students go home for the summer, we expect some attrition as we've seen in the past. But right now, sitting here today, based on current or prior trends, we will have a much higher retention rate than we projected or we've had in the past and continuing students will take up some of that increased bed situation at the university build, if that makes sense. But from a total enrollment standpoint, It won't change the total enrollment, it will just change the pieces between new and continuing.

話雖如此，一旦學生回家過暑假，我們預計會出現一些人員流失，就像我們過去看到的那樣。但現在，今天坐在這裡，根據當前或之前的趨勢，我們的保留率將比我們預期或過去高得多，繼續學習的學生將佔用大學建築中增加的床位情況的一部分，如果有道理的話。但從總註冊人數的角度來看，它不會改變總註冊人數，只會改變新的和繼續的部分。

Our next question comes from Jeff Silber of BMO.

我們的下一個問題來自 BMO 的 Jeff Silber。

Thanks for sneaking me in. I apologize, I joined late. Brian, and forgive me if you mentioned this, and I'm sure you did. You talked about the hybrid business being in a transitional year this year. At a high level, can you just review why that's the case?

謝謝你偷偷帶我進來。抱歉，我來晚了。布萊恩，如果你提到了這一點，請原諒我，我相信你確實提到了。您談到混合業務今年正處於過渡年。從較高的層面來看，您能否回顧一下為什麼會出現這種情況？

Yes. The market absolutely changed because of the slip in the labor market. Unemployment is so low that 3 or 4 years ago, most of the students where students have completed a baccalaureate degree, their careers were not going anywhere, and they wanted to re-career into nursing. And so their transition into the program was pretty simple, much simpler because they already completed a degree.

是的。由於勞動力市場的下滑，市場發生了徹底的變化。失業率如此之低，以至於三四年前，大多數學生已經完成了學士學位，他們的職業生涯沒有任何進展，他們想重新從事護理工作。因此，他們過渡到該計劃非常簡單，簡單得多，因為他們已經完成了學位。

Right now, you've got people making $60,000 and $70,000 a year, the first couple of years out of college. And it doesn't make sense for any of them to put their $70,000 a year job and spend $60,000 to $80,000. It's those re-careering post-tax students have kind of dried up. Now that might change again if the employment situation changes, which (inaudible).

現在，人們在大學畢業後的頭幾年年薪為 60,000 美元和 70,000 美元。對於他們中的任何人來說，投入每年 7 萬美元的工作並花費 6 萬至 8 萬美元是沒有意義的。那些重新就業的稅後學生已經有點枯竭了。現在，如果就業情況發生變化，情況可能會再次發生變化（聽不清）。

But what's happened is that there's still a huge interest in people becoming nurses, but it's students that are at a community college or pretty new out of high school, they earned 30 or 40 credits, maybe 60 credits and they haven't accumulated much debt. What we needed to do for them is create a very efficient way for them to get the science pre-req courses done so they can get into an ABSN program. We needed to make the scheduling of those things very efficient. We need frequent start times. So we've built those courses at GCU. And they quickly rose to 1,200 suits in those courses.

但實際情況是，人們對成為護士仍然有很大的興趣，但這些學生是社區大學的學生或剛從高中畢業的學生，他們獲得了 30 或 40 個學分，也許 60 個學分，而且他們沒有積累太多債務。我們需要為他們做的是為他們創建一種非常有效的方式來完成科學預科課程，以便他們能夠進入 ABSN 項目。我們需要使這些事情的安排變得非常高效。我們需要頻繁的開始時間。所以我們在 GCU 開設了這些課程。這些課程中的花色很快就增加到了 1,200 種。

They're taking anywhere from 2 or 3 to as many as 7 or 8 science courses, chemistry, biology, anatomy, physiology, those courses, and they're completing at a high rate. We've reduced the situation significantly so most are paying cash, and they don't have the difficult decision of accumulating a lot of debt not knowing if I'm going to get in. The reason we're very bullish on this thing going forward is how quickly the enrollments grew in those courses and how well the students are doing.

他們選修了 2 到 3 門到多達 7 到 8 門科學課程，化學、生物學、解剖學、生理學等課程，而且他們的完成率很高。我們已經大大減少了這種情況，所以大多數人都支付現金，他們不會因為不知道我是否會加入而積累大量債務而做出艱難的決定。我們非常看好這件事的原因未來是這些課程的入學人數增長速度以及學生的表現。

The decision then to spend the $50,000 or $60,000 into a nursing program is a pretty easy one given the number of jobs in nursing, what they pay, et cetera. And so the transition is mainly that. Now there was a little bit of some sites opened later because in certain situations, in certain markets, we couldn't get the right number of clinical placements. So there was a little bit of that, but it mostly has to do with the uncertainty of how do I get those prerequisite course is done. And so as that number builds, as students identify a site they want to go to, as they get into the prerequisites, we know after we did our schedule when the pre-reqs will be completed if everything goes well, and therefore what program looks like they'll attend when they finish it.

考慮到護理工作的數量、工資等因素，花 50,000 美元或 60,000 美元參加護理項目的決定是相當容易的。所以過渡主要就是這樣。現在有一些站點後來開放，因為在某些情況下，在某些市場，我們無法獲得正確數量的臨床安置。所以有一點，但主要與我如何完成這些先決條件課程的不確定性有關。因此，隨著這個數字的增加，當學生確定他們想要去的網站時，當他們進入先決條件時，我們知道在完成計劃後，如果一切順利，先決條件何時將完成，因此程序看起來是什麼樣的就像他們完成後會參加一樣。

So it's that transition that's taking place right now, and we're extremely bullish on the fact that it doesn't matter where you are in the country. It doesn't matter what program you're interested in of our 26 different partners, you can come to GCU, you can do the programs, you can do the courses online, and you can do it in very efficient way.

因此，這種轉變正在發生，我們非常看好這樣一個事實：無論你在這個國家的哪個地方。無論你對我們26個不同合作夥伴的哪個項目感興趣，你都可以來GCU，你可以做項目，你可以做在線課程，你可以以非常高效的方式做。

Okay. That's helpful. If I could shift gears to GCU Online. Can you just give us an update in terms of acquisition costs. I know it's been a competitive market. You guys are doing a great job. But I'm just curious if acquisition costs have come down or how they're tracking.

好的。這很有幫助。如果我能轉向 GCU Online 就好了。您能給我們介紹一下採購成本方面的最新情況嗎？我知道這是一個競爭激烈的市場。你們做得很好！但我只是好奇收購成本是否下降了或者他們的跟踪情況如何。

When you look at us historically, and I know you know this, if you look at the 5 or 6 years our acquisition costs, that's where we were getting margin expansion. Now we've been in a position where they stayed pretty flat. It's -- we haven't experienced the difficulties a lot have had. And mainly because 24%, we were 24% over this first quarter of this year over first quarter of prior year and it starts that we have accumulated through our industry partnerships.

當你回顧我們的歷史時，我知道你知道這一點，如果你看看我們過去 5 或 6 年的收購成本，那就是我們利潤率擴張的地方。現在我們的處境是他們保持相當平穩。這是——我們沒有經歷過很多人經歷過的困難。主要是因為 24%，今年第一季度我們比去年第一季度增長了 24%，這首先是我們通過行業合作夥伴關係積累的。

That's taken the pressure off of our marketing plan and (inaudible) and so where other people have had to spend more marketing dollars, which as you spend more, you get deteriorating results, we've been able to keep our actual advertising expense pretty much the same, slight increases because we're getting the starts out of the school districts, hospitals, counseling centers, military bases where we are putting custom programs together to help them enroll account from inside.

這減輕了我們營銷計劃的壓力（聽不清），因此，在其他人不得不花費更多營銷資金的情況下，當你花費更多時，你會得到越來越差的結果，而我們已經能夠保持我們的實際廣告費用相當多同樣，略有增加，因為我們正在從學區、醫院、諮詢中心、軍事基地開始，在那裡我們將定製程序放在一起，幫助他們從內部註冊帳戶。

I'll tell you, the -- we have got so many partnerships now with school districts where we're taking paraprofessionals who are making $25,000 a year, putting them into (inaudible) programs that lead to licensure that allow them to become full-time teachers at $70,000 a year. In some of the biggest cities in America, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston. I mean those are -- it's a great story because it's really lifting people to a middle-class job, at the same time, it's giving human resource departments within large school districts and HR plan that they can count on and give them some level of predictability and a way for us to offer programs without having to buy (inaudible). So that's -- so we really haven't had the issue that you probably heard from a lot of groups.

我告訴你，我們現在與學區建立了很多合作夥伴關係，我們正在招募年薪 25,000 美元的輔助專業人員，將他們放入（聽不清）項目中，從而獲得許可，使他們能夠成為全職人員-時間教師每年70,000美元。在美國一些最大的城市，紐約、芝加哥、費城和波士頓。我的意思是，這是一個很棒的故事，因為它確實使人們獲得了中產階級的工作，同時，它為大型學區的人力資源部門和人力資源計劃提供了他們可以信賴的資源，並為他們提供了一定程度的幫助。可預測性以及我們無需購買即可提供計劃的方式（聽不清）。所以，我們確實沒有遇到您可能從很多團體中聽到的問題。

We have reached the end of our first quarter conference call. We appreciate your time and interest in Grand Canyon Education. If you still have questions, please contact myself, Dan Bachus. Thank you very much.

我們的第一季度電話會議已經結束。感謝您花時間關注大峽谷教育。如果您仍有疑問，請聯繫我本人 Dan Bachus。非常感謝。

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

感謝您參加今天的會議。這確實結束了該程序。您現在可以斷開連接。