The University of Phoenix will no longer be able to recruit service members through a federal tuition assistance program, after the institution was allegedly found to be using deceptive marketing tactics and abusing military trademarks.
The investigation, initiated by U.S. Sen Dick Durbin (D-IL), was instituted after investigative reporting journal Reveal published an article in June, underscoring how the University of Phoenix allegedly paid the military to sponsor concerts and other non-educational events to gain informal access to service members with GI Bill college funding.
The article also alleges that the school was able to pay $1 trillion to five large military bases over the past five years to sponsor such events, suggesting a military endorsement of the university the Department of Defense says does not exist.
“This is a decisive action by the Department of Defense to protect service members and taxpayers from a company that offers degrees of questionable value," Durbin said. "With below-average graduation rates and a student loan default rate almost forty percent higher than the national average, the University of Phoenix is going to have a hard time explaining why students should continue to enroll in this institution."
Durbin also said the school received nearly $3 billion in federal funding in 2014.
The University of Phoenix is also being investigated by at least three state Attorneys General, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Education Inspector General, and the Federal Trade Commission.
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