Dive Brief:
- A federal court on Thursday approved a $28.5 million settlement between Walden University and students who accused the for-profit institution of misleading them about the cost of its doctorate of business administration program.
- In a class-action lawsuit, filed in 2022, plaintiffs alleged that Walden implemented “a concerted constellation of tactics to target, deceive, and exploit Black and female DBA students” and “deliberately hid the true cost” of the program by downplaying how many credits it required.
- “My experience at Walden highlights the urgent need for reforms within for-profit educational institutions to better protect students from financial exploitation and to uphold academic integrity,” Tareion Fluker, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
The case against Walden centered on the capstone phase of the university’s business doctorate, which plaintiffs described as predatory, alleging that it intentionally dragged on while costs to students piled up.
“After luring students to the DBA program with the false promise that they could swiftly earn a graduate degree, Walden kept (and continues to keep) students trapped in the capstone phase by arbitrarily requiring them to complete additional credits at a cost of close to $1,000 each,” the original complaint against Walden alleged.
The capstone consists of a research and writing project students finished after their classwork. According to the complaint, the project approval process typically delayed students’ progress through their capstone phase.
For example, faculty serving as committee members, according to plaintiffs, sometimes rejected work on minor issues or gave vague feedback — both of which could restart the process. Those delays added time and money beyond what the university advertised would be necessary to complete
Specifically, enrollment advisers told plaintiffs that 60 credits would be needed to finish their degree, even though students in the doctorate of business administration program took on average 94 credits to complete, according to the complaint. That could translate into as much as $34,300 in added costs per graduate.
In all, Walden collectively overcharged roughly 830 Black and female students by more than $28.5 million, plaintiffs alleged.
Plaintiffs alleged the program targeted Black student prospects in its marketing and thereby discriminated against them.
According to the complaint, Walden devoted nearly all of its local advertising budget to areas with higher-than-average Black populations, including the Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta markets. Additionally, plaintiffs said the university targeted in its recruiting nontraditional student groups that were disproportionately Black and female, such as those that were employed while pursuing their doctorates, students with children and students over age 30.
“Walden’s enrollment of large numbers of Black and female students would be laudable if Walden were offering a legitimate, non-predatory educational program,” the complaint argued. “Instead, however, Walden is targeting Black and female students with a predatory program designed to hoodwink students and saddle them with onerous student debt.”
Along with the monetary award, Walden agreed in the settlement to make changes to its program, including expanding disclosures around tuition, fees and time to degree completion, as well as eliminating a layer of review in its capstone process.
Adtalem Global Education acquired Walden in 2021, in a deal that drew scrutiny from higher education advocacy groups. According to the for-profit operator’s most recent financials, Walden saw its fourth-straight quarter of enrollment growth, with total headcounts up 11.3% year over year in the period ending June 30.
