DeVry University Class Action Challenges ‘90% Placement’ Claim

DeVry University misrepresents its graduates’ employment rate to potential students, according to a recent class action lawsuit.

DeVry University is operated by Adtalem Global Education, a for-profit education company that makes its money by marketing and selling for-profit educational goods and services.

There are nearly 60 DeVry campuses across the United States as well as an online division of the school.

Since 2008, DeVry University has reportedly marketed itself with representations about its students’ employment and income rates.

According to the DeVry class action lawsuit, the university claims that 90 percent of their students actively seeking employment had successfully secured careers in field of study within six months of graduating.

DeVry reportedly also represented that their graduates obtained “significantly higher incomes” when compared to graduates of other schools. These claims are allegedly false.

Plaintiff T’lani Robinson argues that these representations are nothing more than marketing ploys that DeVry uses to attract potential students and increase their tuition costs.

“Using high-pressure sales tactics to leverage these statistics, DeVry is able to charge significantly more for its services than other universities, even though its students—even those who graduate—are no more likely to land a job than those who didn’t go to college,” the DeVry University class action lawsuit claims.

Robinson claims that DeVry’s deception is both illegal and a violation of their own company policies. DeVry’s enrollment agreements reportedly contains an accurate information disclosure, stating:

“DeVry publishes accurate information about its programs, policies, services, and graduate outcomes. Complete, accurate information is provided on our website, In [sic] our catalogs, and in advertisements and other materials published by DeVry.”

However, the DeVry class action alleges that the marketing representations are false because DeVry includes and excludes large groups of students from their analysis in order to obtain a favorable result.

For example, when the university is calculating the employment rate of their graduates, they reportedly include graduates who did not obtain a job due to their degree and graduates who simply continued with the same job they had before enrolling in DeVry University.

In 2016, the false nature of DeVry’s claims was reportedly revealed to the public. However, by this point thousands of students had already relied on claims from the university to enroll in the school’s programs and borrow millions in student loans to pay for their education.

Robinson says she experienced the effects of DeVry’s deception first hand. In 2013, Robinson toured a DeVry campus in Decatur, Georgia. During this tour and in subsequent communications with the university, Robinson was allegedly ensured that the high tuition rates were justified by the school’s employment rates.

She later enrolled in DeVry’s online program and paid more than $17,000 for her education. However, she claims that she would not have paid this money if she had known DeVry’s representations were false.

Robinson seeks to represent a Class of DeVry students who paid for their education program while residing in Georgia or attending a campus in the state. She also seeks to represent a subclass of consumers who paid for their education with a direct student loan and another subclass of students who entered into an enrollment agreement with the university.

The DeVry class action lawsuit seeks compensatory damages, exemplary damages, punitive damages, treble damages, statutory penalties, disgorgement, restitution, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

Robinson and the proposed Class are represented by Jennifer Auer Jordan of Shamp Jordan Woodward LLC; Benjamin H. Richman, Sydney M. Janzen, and Michael Ovca of Edelson PC; and Robert L. Teel of the Law Office of Robert L. Teel.

The DeVry University Class Action Lawsuit is Robinson v. Adtalem Global Education Inc., Case No. 1:19-cv-01505-CC, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

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