{"id":84237,"date":"2017-09-01T20:32:50","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T00:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=84237"},"modified":"2017-09-01T03:48:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T07:48:01","slug":"schneiderman-announces-restitution-for-hundreds-duped-by-devry-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=84237","title":{"rendered":"Schneiderman announces restitution for hundreds ‘duped by DeVry University’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Restitution Comes After A.G. Schneiderman Investigation Found DeVry Misled Students Regarding Post-Graduation Employment And Salary Prospects<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that hundreds of students will receive restitution following the Attorney General\u2019s investigation into DeVry Education Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries DeVry University, Inc. and DeVry\/New York, Inc. (collectively, \u201cDeVry\u201d). The Attorney General\u2019s investigation found that DeVry lured students with ads that exaggerated graduates\u2019 success in finding employment and contained inadequately substantiated claims about graduates\u2019 salary success.\u00a0The Attorney General reached a $2.25 million settlement with DeVry in January\u00a02017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On average, each of the 809 students will receive approximately $2,800 in restitution. The Better Business Bureau, which is administering the restitution process, is expected to begin sending out checks to the students later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeVry exploited students who were simply trying to further their education,\u201d said\u00a0Attorney General Schneiderman. \u201cWe will not allow hardworking New Yorkers to be ripped off by greedy companies \u2013 which is why DeVry is now paying millions in restitution to hundreds of students. My office will not back down from policing unscrupulous for-profit colleges in New York State.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s investigation found that many of DeVry\u2019s advertisements centered on a claim that 90 percent of DeVry graduates who are actively seeking employment obtain employment in their field of study\u00a0within six months\u00a0of graduation.\u00a0 The Attorney General\u2019s investigation revealed that the 90 percent 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.\u00a0In fact, many of the graduates included in the 90 percent figure 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. 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. Furthermore, DeVry\u2019s 90 percent claim did not accurately reflect outcomes at all programs offered by DeVry. Certain programs had employment outcomes that were significantly lower than 90 percent 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 percent 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

DeVry graduates eligible to participate in the claims process included:\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 To be eligible for restitution, graduates had to return a claim form indicating that they were not able to find employment in their field of study\u00a0within six months\u00a0of graduation, despite seeking such employment.<\/p>\n

The Attorney General has made cracking down on illegal activity by for-profit colleges a priority. The office reached a $10.25 million settlement with Career Education Corporation for fabricating placement rates, and was part of a settlement with Education Management Company to resolve allegations that the school misled prospective students on program costs, graduate rates, and placement rates. As part of the settlements, EDMC agreed to forgive over $100 million outstanding loan debt.<\/p>\n

In July, the office was part of a coalition of Attorneys General that sued the U.S. Department of Education for abandoning critical student protections related to for-profit colleges.<\/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":"

Restitution Comes After A.G. Schneiderman Investigation Found DeVry Misled Students Regarding Post-Graduation Employment And Salary Prospects Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that hundreds of students will receive restitution following the Attorney General\u2019s investigation into DeVry Education Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries DeVry University, Inc. and DeVry\/New York, Inc. (collectively, \u201cDeVry\u201d). The Attorney General\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23813,23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84237","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=84237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84237\/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=84237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}