DoED settlement: For-profit school must scale back student success claims
Advertisements for DeVry, a for-profit university, claimed that since 1975, 90 percent of graduates find a job within six months of graduation. The government says that those claims are unsubstantiated.
The US Department of Education announced a settlement Thursday with DeVry University, a for-profit institution of higher education, over the school’s use of post-graduation employment claims in advertisements to lure new students.
DeVry got in trouble with regulators for widely advertising that since 1975, 90 percent of graduates had found a job in their field within six months of graduating. The school was unable to substantiate that claim, the Department of Education concluded, based on materials it requested from DeVry in August 2015.
“This is yet again another major instance of a for-profit institution running into difficulties with the new regulatory scrutiny,” Kevin Kinser, the head of the department of education policy at Pennsylvania State University, tells The Christian Science Monitor.
“Students deserve accurate information about where to invest their time and money, and the law is simple and clear: recruitment claims must be backed up by hard data,” US Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr. said in a statement.
Both the Department of Education and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are working to investigate DeVry. As a result of this week’s settlement, DeVry will be required to post a more than $68 million letter of credit, cease advertising with its "90 percent" statistics, and prominently state on its website that the previous claims were unsubstantiated.
Although it is the latest school to run afoul of federal regulators, DeVry is not alone. In recent years, a number of for-profit chains have come under scrutiny, as evidence grows that attending such institutions often leaves students in debt and poor employment outcomes, a cycle that worsens the ongoing student loan crisis in the United States.
“For-profits are not going away. We’ve had for-profit higher education inDoED settlement: For-profit school must scale back student success claims - CSMonitor.com:
Big Education Ape: Who Keeps Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Flowing to For-Profit Colleges? These Guys - ProPublica - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/03/who-keeps-billions-of-taxpayer-dollars.html
Big Education Ape: For-Profit Colleges Mislead Students, Report Finds - NYTimes.com - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2010/08/for-profit-colleges-mislead-students.html
Big Education Ape: WTF Education Department Letting For-Profit Schools Off Because They’re ‘Too Big To Fail,’ Report Says - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/02/wtf-education-department-letting-for.html
Big Education Ape: Finally, the feds move to fire an incompetent watchdog over for-profit colleges - LA Times - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/06/finally-feds-move-to-fire-incompetent.html
Big Education Ape: Will the Department of Education Crack Down on For-Profit Colleges? | Center for Media and Democracy - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2010/06/will-department-of-education-crack-down.html