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Corinthian Colleges closes remaining US campuses affecting 16,000 students after false reporting claims

A for-profit college chain in the US has shut its doors

Hazel Sheffield
Monday 27 April 2015 12:21 BST
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Corinthian had 12,000 employees and served 72,000 students when it ran into funding issues
Corinthian had 12,000 employees and served 72,000 students when it ran into funding issues

A for-profit college chain in the US is closing its remaining 13 campuses in California, Arizona, New York, Hawaii and Oregon following a long-running scandal in which the company is accused of falsifying graduation and job placement rates. It denies any wrongdoing.

Last June, the US Department of Education placed Corinthian on a list of schools held to more strict rules around the government funding they receive. Around 65 per cent of the schools on this list are for-profit institutions.

A month after warning that it may have to shut down if the government restricted its access to funding, it struck a deal to sell off most of its 100 campuses and wind down the rest. At the time, Corinthian had 12,000 employees and served 72,000 students.

By November, Corinthian had agreed to sell most of its campuses to a non-profit firm. It has now announced that the rest will go. “We made every effort to address regulators’ concerns in good faith,” chief executive Jack Massimino told the Wall Street Journal. “Neither our board of directors, our management, our faculty, nor our students believe these schools deserved to be forced to close.”

Students affected by the closures will be provided alternative educational arrangements by other schools, Corinthian said, though it admitted those arrangements were dependent on other schools stepping up to help.

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