Grand Canyon College (GCU), the nation’s largest Christian college, has been hit with a report nice of $37.7 million by the federal authorities that alleges the establishment misled over 7,500 college students concerning the prices related to its graduate applications, the Division of Training (DOE) introduced on Tuesday.
“GCU lied about the price of its doctoral applications to draw college students to enroll,” stated Federal Pupil Assist (FSA) COO Richard Cordray within the launch. “FSA takes its oversight tasks severely. GCU’s lies harmed college students, broke their belief, and led to unexpectedly excessive ranges of scholar debt.”
Situated in Phoenix, Arizona, GCU has a scholar physique of over 100,000 college students.
The FSA investigation discovered that since 2017, GCU had been misinforming college students concerning the prices of their doctoral applications, promoting bills between $40,000 and $49,000. Nevertheless, lower than 2% of graduates managed to finish the applications throughout the marketed prices. Further bills, primarily for “continuation programs,” had been vital for almost all of graduates, resulting in a big improve in tuition bills of roughly 25% in comparison with what GCU initially promoted.
GCU’s nice print disclosures had been deemed “inadequate to treatment the substantial misrepresentations relating to price,” and the college didn’t contest its dedication that 98% of scholars enrolled in sure doctoral applications paid greater than marketed, the DOE famous.
In response, Grand Canyon College refuted the accusations in a press release on Tuesday and vowed to take all vital steps to defend itself in opposition to the claims.
“Grand Canyon College categorically denies each accusation within the Division of Training’s assertion and can take all measures essential to defend itself from these false accusations,” GCU stated within the assertion.
GCU added that it believes it’s being “unjustly focused” because the nation’s largest Christian college and that people throughout the authorities companies have used their positions “to assault establishments with whom they’re ideologically opposed.”
The DOE has imposed the $37.7 million nice, plus particular necessities for the college’s participation in federal scholar assist applications, together with prohibiting additional misrepresentations concerning the prices of their doctoral applications, oversight by a monitor, and necessary reporting on authorized proceedings or investigations associated to accreditation or pending litigation.