Dive Brief:

• In a Thursday announcement, the Apollo Education Group's University of Phoenix and Western International University revealed that students' enrollment agreements will no longer include mandatory arbitration clauses.
• The clauses, which prevent students claiming they were defrauded from suing the for-profit colleges, were a source of scrutiny for the company, most notably from the U.S. Department of Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
• The arbitration clauses will no longer appear in the agreements after July 1.

Dive Insight:

The clauses weren't just a source of concern for the Department of Education: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had also spoken in favor of their elimination. Removing the clauses will allow students to take their claims to court rather than relying on out-of-court negotiations. 

The for-profit sector at large has been a focus of federal higher ed regulations in recent years. Schools in the space have faced allegations that they recruited students with promises of greater career prospects than they delivered while saddling them with substantial student loan debt. In some cases, the scrutiny has even spelled the end of several such colleges, with Corinthian Colleges perhaps the most high-profile of the bunch to shutter.