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Nearly 16,000 borrowers will receive $415 million in borrower defense to repayment discharges following the approval of four new findings. This includes approximately 1,800 former DeVry University students, who will receive approximately $71.7 million in full borrower-defense discharges after the U.S. Department of Education determined that the institution made “widespread substantial misrepresentations” about its job-placement rates. These are the first approved borrower-defense claims associated with a currently operating institution, as opposed to institutions that have closed, and the department will seek to recoup the cost of the discharge.
A spokeswoman for DeVry said, “DeVry University is deeply committed to student success and has oriented our whole organization around helping people compete in a complex and changing labor market. As today’s announcement calls out, any student claims date back to advertising that was used between 2008 and 2015, predating DeVry’s establishment as an independent institution with a new board and leadership. Nonetheless, we do believe that the Department of Education mischaracterizes DeVry’s calculation and disclosure of graduate outcomes in certain advertising, and we do not agree with the conclusions they have reached.”
This round of discharges includes new findings related to Westwood College and the nursing program at ITT Technical Institute, as well as recent findings about the criminal justice programs at Minnesota School of Business/Globe University and another $284.5 million in discharges to over 11,900 students who attended institutions such as Corinthian Colleges and Marinello Schools of Beauty, whose applications were reviewed after earlier announcements of relief.
In total, the Education Department has provided loan relief through the program to 107,000 borrowers, for a total of $2 billion.
