Share Market Daily Writer By Mahesh Limbani Published August 31, 2022
Federal financial aid was abused and students were exploited at the defunct institution, according to the Education Department.
79,000 Westwood College students have been discharged from their loans, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
In 2009, Westwood College and its parent company Alta Colleges Inc. settled fraud charges. Westwood closed its doors in 2016.
Prior to Tuesday's announcement, the department had already discharged approximately 4,000 former students' debts for $130 million.
A Westwood degree would enable students to stay employed for life and find employment within six months of graduation, Westwood told prospective students.
Former Westwood President George Burnett was named president of the University of Phoenix earlier this year, but he resigned soon after the department raised questions about his involvement.
Nearly 1.1 million borrowers whose colleges took advantage of them have now been approved for discharges totaling $14.5 billion, the department reported.
In terms of discharging student debt, the Biden administration prioritizes for-profit colleges accused of fraud. Recently, ITT Tech students had $3.9 billion of student debt canceled.
It comes after President Biden announced last week that his administration would forgive $10,000 to $20,000 of student loans.