Argosy Borrowers Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Argosy University was a large-scale, predatory, low value, for-profit institution of postsecondary education in operation from 2001 to 2019. It was owned by Education Management Group (EDMC) until it was sold to Dream Center in 2017. EDMC managed over 20 Argosy University campuses as well as the Art Institute (Ai) schools. According to their 2014 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, they had over 25,000 students enrolled per year at Argosy University alone, plus more than 65,000 students annually at Ai.

In this report, you will find substantial evidence documenting the morally corrupt and illegal business practices of EDMC. The sources include lawsuits, settlements, government investigations, news reports, revenue reports, and the testimony of former students and employees. Former students share the negative experiences that they had while studying at Argosy University and the harmful ongoing impact that it has had on their lives. You will learn about lying, misappropriation of federal funds, and school misconduct in all of the six areas required to qualify all former students of Argosy University for borrower defense loan discharge. 

These students were recruited with aggressive and deceptive techniques, including substantial misrepresentations of job placement rates and substantial omissions of facts about tuition and fees. Argosy University promised students high quality, accredited education, and it breached its contract with them by providing low value education instead. EDMC’s business model was based on enrolling as many students as possible and then keeping them enrolled as long as possible so the company could reap the financial benefits of federal student aid. Argosy University also systematically targeted veterans and military spouses to take advantage of GI Bill funds. Thousands of students went into insurmountable debt while attending these schools and obtained degrees that are often not worth the paper on which they are printed.

In addition to facing numerous lawsuits, EDMC schools, including Argosy University, entered a settlement with 39 states and the District of Columbia to resolve consumer protection claims arising out of its recruitment and enrollment practices. Argosy University was required to cancel certain institutional loan debt owed by former students, and the settlement required EDMC to undertake reforms, including making certain disclosures, prohibitions on deceptive recruiting practices, and oversight by an administrator. The settlement was the beginning of the end for Argosy University, but it hardly addressed all the harm that it had done. 

The evidence clearly shows that Argosy University misled a generation of students into enrolling in expensive programs and left them with heavy debts that many cannot repay. Argosy University masked itself as an institution of higher education, when in reality, it was a money-making fraud that systematically and boldly lied to students to profit from federal financial aid. Its deceptive practices left many students with a lifetime of student loan debt and low value degrees. The Department of Education (ED or the Department) allowed EDMC schools to remain eligible for student loans and grants through the entire run of their existence until finally doing the right thing in 2019 by denying them further federal aid.

In addition, the abrupt closure of Argosy schools left students unable to get transcripts, have transcripts corrected, or demonstrate proof of training hours. The abrupt closure has severely limited graduates’ ability to practice in their trained professions. Many former students are unable to get licensure, work in their fields (including in understaffed professions like mental health), or move and change jobs due to lack of proof of degree and/or training. In addition, students seeking a copy of their diplomas cannot get them.

Given the fraud that pervaded Argosy University and the government’s complicity with their offenses, the rational and justifiable next course of action is the elimination of all student loan debts. After reviewing this information, we ask that you discharge all student loans for borrowers who attended Argosy University. EDMC was a predatory business that misrepresented its ability to prepare students for careers, hid bookkeeping information, lied about accreditation, engaged in deceptive recruiting tactics, and has faced numerous lawsuits, including prior borrower defense loan discharge lawsuits.