With enrollment and revenue declining, the University of Phoenix announced yesterday that it will close about half of its physical locations around the country in an effort to save $300 million.
The closed locations includes 90 learning centers and 25 campuses, accounting for a total of 13,000 students. This will leave 112 Phoenix locations in 36 states. [More]
For the first time, the Dept. of Education has provided stats for people three years into their student loan repayments, and the numbers don’t paint a pretty picture. The percentage of college students defaulting on their loans is on the rise, with 9.1% of recent students defaulting within two years of their first payment coming due, and a whopping 13.5% defaulting within three years. And at controversial for-profit colleges, that number is alarmingly higher. [More]
If someone offers to sell you a life-changing product ranging in price anywhere from $10,000 to $250,000 — maybe more — chances are that most of you will at least attempt to negotiate that price down; only suckers pay sticker price. And yet, when it comes to a college education, it’s unheard of to call up competing institutes of higher learning to see if you can knock a few bucks off the MSRP. [More]
On Monday, we shared the results of a two-year Senate investigation into how much federal money is going to for-profit colleges, and what kind of return students and society as a whole are getting on that investment. (Answers: $32 billion, and a pretty terrible return on that investment.) A study that the National Consumer Law Center released yesterday shows the college bubble from a different perspective: that of student loan borrowers who have gone into default. It’s not pleasant. [More]
Earlier today, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) announced the findings of its two-year investigation into exactly where the $32 billion annual investment in federal student aid is going — and whether students are getting a return on taxpayers’ investment. [More]
The nation’s 15 largest for-profit colleges get nearly 90% of their annual revenue from federal aid programs for students. New legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate today would prevent any of that money being used on advertising, marketing and recruitment. [More]
According to a report, for-profit colleges are making things tough for students by charging exorbitant fees, engaging in high-pressure recruiting efforts and supplying degrees that don’t do as much for students as promised. The report contends more oversight from state governments could better protect students from the institutions. [More]
Melinda has an MBA from Kaplan University, and has enough business sense to know that she shouldn’t have to pay debts that aren’t hers in the first place. The for-profit college, part of the Washington Post Company, has decided that she owes them more than $3,000 even though her tuition was long ago paid with federal financial aid. No one can show her a detailed breakdown of the bill, or explain why no one noticed that she owed the money until months after graduation. Update: Kaplan has since resolved Melinda’s problem. [More]
The for-profit college industry has earned a reputation for shady methods of operation, such as peddling flimsy academic credentials for high prices and minimal effort in the classroom, and now the government is taking one of the largest corporations in the industry to court. [More]
A 2010 GAO studied showed that federal aid to students at for-profit colleges had tripled over a five-year period from $8 billion to $24 billion and now accounts for 23% of the total aid given out, even though enrollment at for-profit schools only accounts for 8% of college students. Meanwhile, studies continue to show that an inordinately small number of students at these schools ever graduates. In an effort to cut back on the number of people left with mammoth amounts of student loan debt they can’t pay back, the U.S. Dept. of Education has issued a new edict: Show us your college actually prepares students for gainful employment or risk losing out on that lovely loan money. [More]
If you’re planning on getting ahead in life with a degree from a for-profit college, consider this: a new report says that only 9% of students there graduate within 6 years. Ah, so that’s the reason why you don’t see too many University of Phoenix degrees hanging on the walls of high-powered execs. [More]
Last year, we brought you the story of 13 graduates of Everest College’s Dallas campus who filed a lawsuit claiming they had been misled by the for-profit school into believing they would be able to find jobs and transfer their credits upon graduation. Now, a handful of Everest alums in Utah have filed a similar lawsuit, alleging fraud by the school. [More]
Back in August, the Government Accountability Office released the findings of their hidden-camera investigation that caught employees at several for-profit colleges encouraging applicants to lie in order to get more federal financial aid. Today, the GAO released a report that sheds some light on just how much money these schools have been getting from the government. [More]
Part of 
