DeVry, a for-profit institution, made false claims in television, print, radio and other media advertising, asserting that 90 percent of its graduates found work in their field of study within six months of graduation, the FTC said. In addition, DeVry advertisements claimed that DeVry graduates earned more than graduates from other institutions.
“When prospective students are weighing whether to attend a particular university they often base their decision on an institution’s claims and literature, including its marketing materials to assess whether that school will help them further their career goals,” FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said on Wednesday.
“We found several instances where DeVry graduates were not working in their field of study despite DeVry counseling them as doing so, including from this 2012 graduating class where, for example, a business administration graduate with a human resources specialization was working as a delivery driver,” Ramirez added.
Like many other large for-profits, DeVry is a sprawling institution, managed by a central organization, in this case called the DeVry Educational Group. The school has 55 locations in 18 states, according to its website.
One of its offshoots, DeVry University-Illinois, boasts the fifth largest undergraduate enrollment in the country at more than 42,000 students, according to a US News and World Report short list. In terms of graduate success, DeVry’s cohort loan default rate has improved from a low of 23 percent in 2010 to 13 percent in 2012, according to the NCES’s most recent numbers.
In addition to the FTC’s suit, the Department of Education said on Wednesday that it will take action to require DeVry to notify students that claims about a 90 percent job placement rate are false and to compel the institution to cease making false statements in its own and third-party marketing. ED will also move to ensure that an independent auditor will review DeVry’s future statements about postgraduate outcomes.
