Students left in lurch as parent company shuts down campuses after hefty fine.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Another for-profit college announced it is shutting down its Portland campuses Monday.
Heald College, which is owned by Corinthian Colleges, announced the move via text message and social media, according to OregonLive.com.
More than 300 students locally — 16,000 nationally — are left in the lurch by the sudden shutdown. The announcement came after the U.S. Education Department fined Corinthian Colleges, Heald’s parent company, a whopping $30 million for allegedly falsifying student job placement numbers. State education regulators are working on “articulation agreements” that would facilitate transfers for Heald students. So far, articulation agreements are in place with Oregon State University, Portland State University and Warner Pacific College, said Endi Hartigan, spokeswoman for Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
The closure of Heald is the latest and perhaps the last major development in the meltdown of Corinthian, once one of the largest for-profit colleges in the country. Corinthian was thrown into financial chaos last summer when the education department restricted the company’s access to federal student loan proceeds. The college was also sued last fall by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which alleged Corinthian’s in-house student loan program was misleading and predatory.
Heald is just the latest in a long line of for-profit schools going under in the area.
From the Portland Business Journal:
“We believe that we have attempted to do everything within our power to provide a quality education and an opportunity for a better future for our students,” said Jack Massimino, Corinthian’s CEO, in a release.
“Unfortunately the current regulatory environment would not allow us to complete a transaction with several interested parties that would have allowed for a seamless transition for our students.
DeVry announced it would go to an online-only format last week.
