{"id":77794,"date":"2017-02-14T05:13:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T10:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=77794"},"modified":"2017-02-12T17:16:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-12T22:16:30","slug":"schneiderman-announces-settlement-with-devry-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=77794","title":{"rendered":"Schneiderman announces settlement with DeVry University"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In Addition To Restitution, A.G. Settlement Requires Devry To Reform Advertising Practices And Pay $500,000 In Penalties, Fees, And Costs<\/em><\/p>\n

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced a settlement with for-profit education company DeVry Education Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries DeVry University, Inc. and DeVry\/New York, Inc. (collectively, \u201cDeVry\u201d).<\/p>\n

The settlement resolves an investigation that revealed that DeVry lured students with ads that exaggerated graduates\u2019 success in finding employment at graduation and contained inadequately substantiated claims about graduates\u2019 salary success.\u00a0 Pursuant to the agreement, DeVry will pay $2.25 million in consumer restitution and $500,000 in penalties, fees and costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeVry used misleading claims to lure in students who were simply seeking a college degree, greatly exaggerating job and salary prospects for graduates\u201d said Attorney General Schneiderman<\/strong>. \u201cI\u2019m pleased that this settlement provides much-deserved restitution to students who were misled, and requires DeVry to stop its false advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeVry is headquartered in Illinois and operates fifty-five campuses throughout the country, including three in New York City.\u00a0 DeVry also offers online college programs.<\/p>\n

Many of DeVry\u2019s advertisements centered on a claim that 90% of DeVry graduates who are actively seeking employment obtain employment in their field of study within six months<\/span><\/span> of graduation.\u00a0 The Attorney General\u2019s investigation revealed that the 90% claim was misleading because a substantial number of the graduates included in the 90% figure were graduates who were already employed prior to graduating from DeVry.\u00a0 In fact, many of the graduates included in the 90% were employed before they even enrolled at DeVry.<\/p>\n

In addition, DeVry\u2019s employment outcome statistics inaccurately classified a significant number of graduates as employed in their field of study, when in reality the graduates were not working in their field.\u00a0 For example, DeVry counted graduates of DeVry\u2019s Technical Management program as \u201cemployed in field\u201d where the graduates were employed as retail salespersons, receptionists, bank tellers, and data entry workers.\u00a0 In some cases, graduates were counted as employed in their field of study despite holding positions that did not require a college degree.<\/p>\n

DeVry also mischaracterized certain unsuccessful job-seekers as \u201cinactive,\u201d despite evidence that the graduates had in fact carried out an active, though unsuccessful, job search.\u00a0 Furthermore, DeVry\u2019s 90% claim did not accurately reflect outcomes at all programs offered by DeVry.\u00a0 Certain programs had employment outcomes that were significantly lower than 90% over consecutive years.<\/p>\n

DeVry also made inadequately substantiated claims in its advertisements concerning DeVry graduates\u2019 salary outcomes.\u00a0 For example, some DeVry ads touted that DeVry bachelor\u2019s degree graduates earned 15% more one year after graduation than all graduates with bachelor\u2019s degrees from all other colleges and universities.\u00a0 This claim, which was based on commissioned studies carried out by a third-party entity, was inconsistent with other data DeVry had concerning graduates\u2019 salaries.<\/p>\n

The settlement requires DeVry to pay $2.25 million in restitution.\u00a0 The restitution will be used to compensate eligible graduates of associates and bachelor\u2019s degree programs at DeVry\u2019s New York campuses and New York residents that graduated from DeVry\u2019s online associates and bachelor\u2019s degree programs.\u00a0 The settlement also requires DeVry to pay $500,000 in penalties, fees, and costs and to reform its practices concerning representations of graduates\u2019 employment and salary outcomes.<\/p>\n

DeVry recently reached a separate settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (\u201cFTC\u201d) concerning its advertising practices.\u00a0 New York DeVry graduates may be eligible to receive restitution under both settlements.\u00a0 Restitution obtained pursuant to the Attorney General\u2019s settlement will be distributed pursuant to a claims process.\u00a0 Graduates eligible to participate in the claims process will receive a claim form by mail.<\/p>\n

DeVry graduates eligible to participate in the claims process include:\u00a0 (1) graduates of associates and bachelor\u2019s degree programs at DeVry campuses in New York who began their program between July 2008 and September 2015; and (2) New York residents that graduated from DeVry online associates or bachelor\u2019s programs and who began their program between July 2008 and September 2015.\u00a0 Such graduates will be eligible to receive restitution under the Attorney General\u2019s settlement where the graduate timely submits a claim form that indicates that the graduate was not employed in her field of study within six months<\/span><\/span> of graduation, despite seeking in-field employment.<\/p>\n

This case was handled by Special Counsel Carolyn Fast and Assistant Attorney General Melvin Goldberg of the Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau, with assistance from Director of Research & Analytics Lacey Keller, under the supervision of Laura J. Levine, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau; Bureau Chief Jane M. Azia, and Manisha M. Sheth, Executive Deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Addition To Restitution, A.G. Settlement Requires Devry To Reform Advertising Practices And Pay $500,000 In Penalties, Fees, And Costs Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced a settlement with for-profit education company DeVry Education Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries DeVry University, Inc. and DeVry\/New York, Inc. (collectively, \u201cDeVry\u201d). The settlement resolves an investigation that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}