FTC sues DeVry University over jobs, earnings claims

The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday it was bringing a lawsuit against DeVry University for misleading students about their likelihood of landing a job after graduation and how much money they could expect to make with a DeVry degree, the agency said Wednesday.

These students are just some of the many people who make up the roughly 90% of graduates DeVry has repeatedly claimed go on to find jobs in their field after actively looking for work for six months, the Federal Trade Commission claims in the suit.

In addition to counting these and other graduates as working “in their field”, the FTC’s complaint also alleges that DeVry excluded graduates from their count of those “seeking employment” as inactive when they were in fact actively seeking employment.

For example, a business administration graduate was considered employed in the field by working as a server at the Cheesecake Factory.

The FTC chairwoman, Edith Ramirez, said in a press release, “Millions of Americans look to higher education for training that will lead to meaningful employment and good pay”.

The Department of Education also sent a notice to DeVry Wednesday requiring that the school stop making advertisements that include postgraduate statistics that the Department says the school can’t substantiate, among other new limitations.

The FTC’s complaint alleges that Defendants had reason to question the reliability of the conclusions and information contained in a third party survey and report that DVU used as the basis for the income superiority claim. That includes the widely-advertised 90 percent claim.

The entrance to the DeVry University in Miramar, Fla.

“Educational institutions like DeVry owe prospective students the truth about their graduates’ success finding employment in their field of study and the income they can earn”, Ramirez said. The school held fast to the claim even though its own internal data showed no meaningful difference between the salaries of DeVry graduates and graduates of other schools, according to the complaint.

DeVry said in a written statement that the FTC’s complaint “is without valid legal basis”.

In a letter to the school posted on the Education Department website, it said that as a condition of further USA federal student aid to DeVry students, the university had to be able to prove any assertions it made about students’ post-graduation job prospects.

“What we are seeking through our action is a court order to stop DeVry from making these types of misrepresentations and seeking monetary relief for affected students”, she said.

The FTC found this to be “deceptive”, and the college is now required to notify current and prospective students about the unsubstantiated claim.