The school’s enrollment for fall 2014 was almost 42,000 students, all of them part-time.

The benefits of Excelsior College, however, are murky at best. While the partnership creates positive press coverage for Pizza Hut and Yum! Brands, the program might do little for employees.

Excelsior doesn’t admit full-time first-time undergraduate-level students, so no federal data on graduation or retention rates are available. The Department of Education’s college scorecard shows that students repay their debt from Excelsior at an above-average rate, but a lack of data make it difficult to compare with other colleges.

Excelsior has been sued in the past for deceptive practice. It’s the largest online nursing school in the country, mostly for associate degrees, but has had problems in some states for not requiring supervised clinical training, though Excelsior argued that no evidence shows their nursing graduates are worse than others.

Regardless, the college boasts that its largest programs are for nursing and liberal studies, and had almost 5,000 graduates in the past year.

Even though full-time students are more likely to graduate, part-time adult students pursuing an associate degree might do better on their second attempt. For some Pizza Hut employees, the program could be a boost that makes a nursing degree obtainable as they continue to work.

Large companies offering a way for employees to attend college generate buzz whenever they’re announced. Starbucks announced a college plan with Arizona State University in April that was well-received. It’s hard to evaluate those plans until more information about completion rates and success is available in a few years, but until then, they should be understood as goodwill efforts instead of effective methods to improve college graduation rates.

A greater boon, for completion rates and employee career advancement, could be a bigger paycheck so workers can decide for themselves.