Grand Canyon College (GCU), the nation’s largest Christian college, has been fined a report $37.7 million by the federal authorities alleging the establishment misled greater than 7,500 college students in regards to the prices related to its graduate applications, the Division of Training (DOE) introduced. is on Tuesday.
“GCU lied about the price of its doctoral applications to entice college students to enroll,” Federal Pupil Assist (FSA) Government Director Richard Cordray mentioned in a press release. “The FSA takes its oversight obligations severely. GCU’s lies have harmed college students, damaged their belief and led to unexpectedly excessive ranges of pupil debt.”
Situated in Phoenix, Arizona, GCU has a pupil physique of over 100,000 college students.
An FSA investigation discovered that since 2017, GCU misinformed college students in regards to the prices of their doctoral applications, promoting prices between $40,000 and $49,000. Nonetheless, lower than 2% of graduates have been capable of full the applications inside the marketed prices. Extra prices, primarily for “instructing programs”, have been crucial for many graduates, resulting in a major enhance in tuition prices of roughly 25% in comparison with what GCU had initially promoted.
GCU’s discovery of the high-quality print was deemed “inadequate to treatment important value misrepresentations,” and the college didn’t dispute its dedication that 98% of scholars enrolled in sure doctoral applications paid greater than marketed, the DOE famous.
In response, Grand Canyon College denied the allegations in a press release Tuesday and vowed to take all crucial steps to defend towards the claims.
“Grand Canyon College categorically denies each allegation within the Division of Training assertion and can take all crucial steps to defend itself towards these false allegations,” GCU mentioned in a press release.
GCU added that it believed it was being “unfairly focused” because the nation’s largest Christian college and that people inside authorities companies have been utilizing their positions “to assault establishments with which they’re ideologically opposed”.
The DOE imposed a $37.7 million high-quality, plus particular necessities for the college’s participation in federal pupil help applications, together with a ban on additional misrepresenting the prices of its doctoral applications, monitoring by displays and obligatory reporting of authorized proceedings or investigations associated to accreditation or in the midst of litigation.