For-profit school DeVry University has agreed to pay $455,000 in refunds to resolve allegations that it used deceptive job placement rates in marketing certain online programs to Massachusetts students, Attorney General Maura Healey announced. This is the office’s first settlement reached with a school operating only online.
The assurance of discontinuance filed Friday in Suffolk Superior Court alleges that DeVry University unfairly and deceptively convinced students to take on federal loan debt and enroll with the promise of careers in their field of study. DeVry offers online programs in Massachusetts, but does not operate a physical campus as it does in many other states.
“For years, for-profit schools have tricked students into unaffordable loans with false promises of high earnings and job opportunities. Now, online programs like DeVry are following the same playbook,” Healey said in a statement. “We will continue to hold these institutions accountable for lying to students.”
According to the AG’s investigation, DeVry made various claims concerning the employment outcomes of graduates, including on its website, in social media, print advertisements, through television commercials, telephone and in-person presentations to prospective students.
The settlement alleges that DeVry prominently advertised that 90 percent of graduates who sought employment landed jobs in their field of study within six months of graduating. The AG’s investigation found that certain DeVry programs had job placement rates as low as 52 percent.
Under the terms of the settlement, DeVry will pay $455,000 in restitution to affected students and is prohibited from misrepresenting the employment outcomes or salaries of its graduates.
More than 100 of DeVry’s Massachusetts graduates are expected to be eligible for settlement payments. The AG’s office will reach out to affected students with more information. Many of these students may also be eligible for payments under a settlement that the FTC reached with DeVry in December 2016.
