Dive Brief:
- Two more for-profit institutions have been classified as ineligible to receive federal student aid disbursements resulting from fraud investigations, the U.S. Department of Education announced yesterday.
- Globe University and the Minnesota College of Business are accused of misrepresenting the ability of students to transfer credits to four-year institutions and are said to have misspent Title IV funds.
- Both schools lost their licenses to operate in Minnesota in September, following a lawsuit filed by the state's attorney general.
Dive Insight:
The federal government continues to uphold its stated objective of protecting taxpayers from fraudulent institutions with this latest round of federal student aid denials, and with the evidence presented, it appears an effective tool in limiting the reach of schools engaging in bad practices.
But other schools should be mindful that "bad practices" can also be attached to actions like accreditation status changes, three-year statistics on audit performance, and other metrics. When it comes to federal oversight, there are a number of ways to describe an institution as "predatory" which may not be limited to criminal practices.
