WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today made the following statement after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it has suspended DeVry University’s status as a “Principles of Excellence” school. DeVry University is a for-profit college whose students cumulatively hold $8.3 billion in student debt – the fourth highest debt volume of any higher education institution in America – and have a 2009 five-year cohort student loan default rate of 43%.
“I’m pleased that the Department of Veterans Affairs is now responding to actions taken by the Federal Trade Commission against DeVry,” said Durbin. “I hope this signals a new willingness by the VA to aggressively protect veterans when federal or state agencies find evidence of misconduct by schools that receive GI Bill funding.”
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In January, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed suit against DeVry University for knowingly misleading potential students. At the time, Durbin said: “The FTC’s charges of deception against DeVry University are the latest chapter in the shameful story of so many for-profit colleges…There is a critical story behind the story for DeVry University’s deception. The real losers here are both the students who are overcharged for questionable diplomas and the taxpayers who subsidize the for-profit college industry – an industry made up of the most heavily subsidized ‘private sector’ companies in America.”
Durbin has worked for more than five years to shine a light on the practices of the for-profit college industry which delivers student outcomes that are questionable and end in much higher rates of student loan defaults than other sectors of higher education. For-profit colleges account for 40% of student loan defaults though they only enroll 10% of all college students.
